


Property of Odin (please send help)

by Kitshunette



Category: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard - Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: M/M, and a few more (surprise), some references to The Kane Chronicles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-15
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-01 17:56:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 29,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5215232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kitshunette/pseuds/Kitshunette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Will Solace was fifteen, and had a lot in common with other fifteen-year-old teenagers.</p>
<p>Unlike most fifteen-year-old though, Will was dead. More precisely, Will died twelve minutes and forty-one seconds ago, poisonous fangs in the chest and in horrible pain. Presumably. It was all a little fuzzy in his head.</p>
<p>This, however, was not the problem.</p>
<p>“WELCOME TO HOTEL VALHALLA” the sign above the door said.</p>
<p><i>That</i>, was the problem.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>  <i>(Set after The Sword of Summer)</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Welcome to Valhalla

 

“There has been a mistake.” 

The guy at the desk – _HELGI, MANAGER, EAST GOTHLAND, VALUED TEAM MEMBER SINCE 749 C.E._ according to his nametag – stared blankly at Will, then sighed and shook his head. His ridiculously huge beard swayed left and right, brushing dust off the desk and probably the floor too. Will wasn’t sure where that facial hair ended, but he did know that half of Cabin Aphrodite would have taken out swords and scissors at first sight to destroy it. 

“They all say that,” Helgi responded. His eyes were distant, as if staring into a better world where he didn’t have to answer confused and whiny dead teenagers, or stand at that desk welcoming more confused and whiny dead teenagers all day long. The satisfaction of ordering Hunding around had started wearing off a few centuries ago, even if he had to put up a show for everyone. Now, he was just contemplating locking himself in the spa on floor 112. And never coming out again. Until Ragnarok, of course. And possibly dinners too. Dinners were also fun sometimes. 

The blond dead teenager insisted. 

“No no, it’s not like that, I know that I’m dead. It’s just that I shouldn’t be here.” 

Helgi raised an eyebrow. The brat didn’t seem very surprised or alarmed about his own doom. He frowned, and carefully looked him up and down. 

Blond hair, tanned skin, athletic body, a 10 centimetres school ruler in his hand that hummed with magic. Probably a glamour concealing a powerful weapon. Which meant… 

Helgi suddenly launched forward across the desk, leaning so close to Will that he could have bumped his nose on his. Then he took a deep breath. 

Will yelped and jumped back. 

“What the heck?” he screamed, brandishing his ruler in front of him. To his surprise, the piece of school furniture didn’t glow and extend into his magically enhanced bow as usual. Instead, the chandelier above his head sizzled, and half the bulbs went off with a pop. 

The hotel manager scowled at the chandelier, then at him. 

“You’re Vanir spawn, aren’t you?” he wrinkled his nose. “Though you have a scent that I can’t quite place…” He paused and considered for a moment. 

Will awkwardly shifted on his feet. __

“Bah!” Helgi eventually exclaimed, brushing the air with his hand. “If you were supposed to go to Folkvanger and were accidentally picked by one of our Valkyries, you’ll have to tell the thanes at dinner. Can’t do anything for you, boy, sorry.” 

He gestured at the doorman, who had been standing silently a few meters away, a grumpy frown on his face and a dark gleam in his bloodshot eyes. As soon as he was called, the guy’s face lit up into a slightly less murderous expression. 

“Please take our new guest to his suite. We look forward to watching your heroic death at dinner.” 

Will opened his mouth to protest, but Hunding (SAXONY, VALUED TEAM MEMBER SINCE 749 C.E.) was already shuffling him towards the corridors. 

“Wait, you have to list-” 

The bang of the massive doors closing cut the boy’s voice off. From the other side of the hall, a couple of einherjar playing Super Smash Bros next to the foyer looked at Helgi curiously. 

“Take that thing somewhere else,” the manager grumbled, gesturing at the Wii consoles and the screen the way one swatted at invading flies. 

The teenagers groaned unhappily, but complied when he glared more insistently at them. As they trotted away, Helgi leaned back into his chair and closed his eyes, trying to look for sources of motivation to keep on with the rest of his workhours. Theoretically, his workhours were 24/7 since death didn’t have any respect for employee’s rest-time, but he had made an arrangement with the Valkyries. No checking in between 7 pm and 9 am, HVT (Hotel Valhalla Time). 

Helgi cracked an eye open and checked the time on his screen. 6:58 pm. He then glanced at the feed of the security camera in the front yard. No sign of activity, which meant that the strange blond boy was the last dead of the day. Good. 

The manager sat up and tapped some commands on the keyboard. He usually never used it because of the ceremonial and the surprise that was one of his only entertainments during the endless dinners, but he ran a scan on the newcomer. The boy had borne a distinct scent of nature and warm sunlight that was usually associated with Vanir folk, but there was something else. It wasn’t exactly threatening, but it didn’t seem innocent either. More like something hidden behind a curtain, unmoving and waiting for a sign to spring into action, as friend or as foe. 

A shiver passed through Helgi’s body as he remembered the latent feeling, and he shook his head angrily. It was probably nothing. Anyway, he was going to be fixed soon enough. Whether the boy was human, or a demigod, or something else entirely should be revealed by the scanner. They were equipped with the best database of the Nine Worlds, gathering information on every living things, or mineral things, or even things in another state of existence (though Helgi still had a hard time grasping that concept). 

After a few seconds, the software made a ringing sound like a microwave and a series of sigils appeared on the screen. They blinked and started swirling around, eventually mashing up to form a single symbol that took up all the available surface. 

_Oh._ Helgi stared dumbly at it. _That was new._

He carefully extended his arm and tapped the screen, in the way someone knocks at their computer when it refused to work. The answer did not change. 

After a moment, Helgi lowered his hand and sighed deeply. He spinned his chair around, hands slowly massaging his temples. 

He was getting too old for this shit. 

Maybe it was time for a trip to the spa. 

As he stood up groaning and waddled to the elevators, a giant question mark kept flashing lazily on the screen. 

 

  
* 

 

Will ducked as a knife flew past his head. Behind him, someone screamed in pain and cursed in a language he had never heard, but Will didn’t need to know what it meant to get the sentiment. He instinctively started turning around to check on the injured, but Hunding was already pulling him towards another corridor. The guy was walking fast. 

“What was that?” the boy croaked out, after speeding up a bit to avoid falling and being dragged on the floor. He turned his head back to try to catch more of the action, and saw a few more knives and other pointy things zipping past the doorframe. More people screamed. 

“Nothing,” Hunding said flatly. He didn’t seem worried. “You’ll get used to it.” 

“Someone got stabbed.” 

“Yes.” 

“Shouldn’t you check on them?” 

The doorman shrugged. 

“They’ll be fine by dinner.” 

_Well then._

The two walked a bit more in silence, and reached an elevator. 

“Where are we going?” Will asked. 

“Your room. Floor 19,” Hunding replied, as he pressed the 19 button. The elevators’ doors closed smoothly, and the hum of the machine accompanied them as it went up. 

“So,” Will started again. “This is Valhalla.” 

The doorman glanced at him sideways, as if trying to ascertain whether he was an idiot. 

Will suddenly did feel like an idiot. 

“Yeah,” the guy eventually said, as they passed floor 10. “Pretty different from Folkvanger from what I heard, though I have never been there. But if there was a mistake like you said, I guess you’ll know soon enough.” 

He sized Will up and down and frowned. 

“You wouldn’t be a son of Freya by any chance, would you?” he asked, a nervous edge in his voice. “If we took a child of the big boss by mistake, there might be trouble.” 

“Uh, no?” 

Hunding sighed, relieved. 

“Good then.” 

The elevator made a ding sound and came to a stop. A female voice announced “Floor 19”, and Hunding gestured at Will to follow him. 

“Come, we’re almost there.” 

 

  
* 

 

“That’s your key. Press it on the rune on the door and it’ll open. Only you can access your room,” Hunding announced in a tone that indicated that it was probably the millionth time he was saying this. 

Will lifted his hand to take the key, but Hunding let it go too soon and it fell on the carpeted floor with a thud. 

“Oh, sorry,” Will said because he apologized too much, and crouched down to retrieve the runestone key. 

When he stood up again, Hunding was staring at him with a troubled gaze. 

“Why didn’t you catch the key?” he asked, accusingly. Will winced. 

“Uh, I guess our timing was off? Sorr-“ 

“My timing is never off,” the doorman insisted, and scowled at Will and the key. The boy wiggled uncomfortably under his gaze. 

As the awkward silence kept going, the door to Will’s left suddenly opened. A blond teenager stepped out, wearing a dark green shirt and jeans, and looking a bit in a hurry. He stopped dead on his tracks when he saw Will and Hunding, and his pale face lit up in a friendly smile. 

“Hello!” the boy called. He looked at Will up and down. Why was everyone doing that today? “You’re new here? I’m Magnus, nice to meet you,” he said, extending a hand. 

Will shook it. 

“Will.” 

“Welcome to Valhalla, Will! Looking forward to your introduction at dinner. Don’t worry if the thanes make faces at you, their default setting is grumpy.” 

“Uh, oka-” 

“Gotta run, sorry. See you soon!” 

Magnus took off. In the middle of the corridor, he joined a couple of other teenagers, including one wearing a Civil War uniform, and they all headed towards the elevator, chatting loudly. 

Will suddenly felt a pang of nostalgia. It looked like camp. 

_Get a hold of yourself, Solace,_ a voice in his head scolded. _You need to contact Nico and get out of here asap._

Will smiled. Thinking of his small boyfriend (Nico insisted that 170 cm was _not_ small, and Will would always pat his head in a knowing way. It usually ended with Nico trying to strangle him.) always made him feel better, and occasionally more focused. When he was in demigod life typical dangerous situation, that was. Because thinking about him in class generally had the opposite effect. 

“Mmh,” Hunding groaned, and Will suddenly remembered what he was doing before Magnus appeared. The doorman seemed to have emerged from his mental solution of the fallen key problem. “Nevermind, open your door. I’m starting to feel hungry.” 

Will complied, and pressed the key against the rune of the door. 

The rune glowed red. 

“What?” Hunding muttered, surprised. Will guessed from his reaction that the rune wasn’t supposed to do that. He checked the plate on the door, wondering if they were in front of the wrong room. _WILL SOLACE_ , it said, but the typing was a bit wobbly, as if the plate had been partially melted. 

“Try again,” the doorman said. 

Will tried again. This time, the rune glowed green and the door cracked open. 

“Thanks the All-Father,” Hunding sighed in his beard. He then looked up at Will, and started stretching out his hand. Midway though, he seemed to hesitate and eventually retracted it. 

Will stared at him, confused. 

“Well, see you at dinner boy,” the man grumbled, turning around to leave. 

“What happens at dinner?” 

Hunding stopped and looked back a bit. 

“Ask your Valkyrie when she picks you up.” 

On these words, the man left and strode away in long fast steps, leaving Will to himself on the doorstep to his afterlife room. 

 

  
* 

 

“Okay, Will, _think_.” 

The demigod paced around his room. It was huge and nice, with an atrium and his favourite landscapes out the window. But it also felt cold and distant, as if the hotel was looking at him wearily from a safe distance. 

Was it possible? Could the building be sentient? 

“Ugh,” Will whimpered, then crashed backwards into his new king-size bed. They didn’t have such comfortable beds at Camp Half-Blood, he thought sadly. 

He stared at the meticulously painted ceiling, showing shifting images of snowy mountains and forests of pines. It was beautiful, and Will almost lost his train of thoughts in the immaculate summits. 

He closed his eyes and considered his situation, starting from the beginning. 

He was going to school. No, coming back from school. He had stopped to buy a piece of pie at his favourite bakery because he was starving. (Haha. Who was he kidding. He just loved eating pie and made up excuses to stuff himself sick, despite telling his friends to take care of their health. He was a dirty hypocrite like that. Anyway.) Then he had heard screams, and his demigod instinct tingled. The next thing he knew, he was standing in a back alley, shielding a pair of five-year-old from a disturbingly horrible monster he had never seen. It had three heads – a wolf, a snake and a goldfish (a very big goldfish, with very mean dead eyes) – and the body of a leopard mixed with the rear of a goat. Its stench was so bad that Will had almost passed out just taking a breath, and his eyes had teared up like they had been sprayed with acid. 

The concept of running away to the next toilets and puke had seemed very tempting. 

There had been a fight where he used his plastic ruler/magic bow as a mass/spear/not-what-a-bow-is-usually-intended-to-be-used-as, and managed to smash the goldfish head and the wolf head into lifeless blobs (image censored). 

But then there was the snake head, and the snake head was very vicious. With the other two heads out of the way, it had a clear path to Will’s vulnerable and very poison-sensitive flesh. So obviously, the snake head had zipped to Will’s chest and firmly planted its fangs in his demigod-flavoured meat. As Will stumbled backwards, dragging the creature with him and his eyesight becoming more and more blurred, he saw a tiny hand pass into his vision field and a blade glittered. Suddenly he wasn’t attached anymore to the fetid monster’s body, and he felt the snake head blow into sand. 

Unfortunately, the poison was still there. 

Will only had time to smile weakly at the terrified little girl holding the knife that had beheaded the monster, before face-planting hard on the cement. 

Fortunately, he had died before his nose collided with the pavement, which would have been very painful. 

And now, there he was, in the wrong afterlife. 

“Ugh,” Will repeated, rolling on his side and hugging the huge fluffy pillow under his head. The fact that Valhalla existed didn’t really surprise him – he knew better than to assume that the Greek and Roman gods were the only ones still roaming the Earth. And not long ago, Percy had landed badly injured in the infirmary, and had started rambling in his sleep about crocodiles and evil Elvis Presleys and magicians. Annabeth had immediately shot to her feet and made Will promise not to tell anyone about what he had heard, which Will promised because Annabeth was scary and he didn’t want to die. 

After that, Will was fairly certain that other deities were meddling with the mortal world – which was also comforting, because it meant that he wasn’t going crazy about the two-suns incident no one else had apparently witnessed, lest had been able to explain to him. Also, his father had winced pretty badly when Will had managed to corner him in a supermarket to question him about it, then had proceeded to awkwardly divert the conversation until Will accidentally looked away. Apollo apparently felt bad fleeing directly under the eyes of his children. It made him look uncool. 

Now, Will had the proof that the Norse gods were a thing. He wondered if Thor looked like Chris Hemsworth. He liked Chris Hemsworth. Dreamy smile, dreamy eyes, that body that looked like it could smash through all the world’s problems- 

With a sigh, the demigod rolled out of bed and stood up firmly on his feet. He hadn’t expected the Norse warriors’ heaven to be a five-star hotel, and he also definitely hadn’t expected to end up there. Moreover, he had the distinct feeling he didn’t belong, and it wasn’t just because Nico had rubbed off some of his death instinct on him. Plus, the hotel’s uncooperative behaviour seemed to agree with him. 

_Nico…_

He knew that his boyfriend must have felt his death. What did he feel then? Pain? Sadness? A tint of happiness that he would finally be able to give a tour of the palace to Will? 

Maybe he had prepared a welcome party. Will imagined the small son of Hades wearing a multicoloured party hat, standing under a banner that said “CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR DEATH” with a fanfare of skeletons playing a parody of the funeral march and Charon the ferryman bringing a cake on his boat in the background. 

He smiled stupidly at the image of Long Island out the window. 

“Okay, Solace, time to act like the cabin counsellor you are,” he announced to no one, and knocked twice on his forehead for good measure. He looked around him, and thought about his next move. 

He needed to talk to Nico. 

Will patted his pockets, and dug out a chocolate bar, his home keys, his plastic ruler, some change and a couple of drachmas. 

Good. Hopefully, Iris’ service covered Valhalla. 

With a newly found resolution, Will strode to the bathroom and filled the sink with hot water, then extended his hand and focused. This time, the hotel didn’t get in his way. Maybe it understood that Will was trying to get the hell out of there. 

A small glow started spreading from his fingers, expanding above the water and the vapour until a colourful rainbow appeared. Will quickly flipped a drachma at the rainbow, and started improvising the most fervent prayer he had ever recited. He called to Iris, then his dad, then Nico’s dad (you never know), then anyone who could help him. 

After long seconds of stressful wait, Will finally felt a presence. It wasn’t exactly like a _physical_ presence, but more like a thought brushing past his mind, ephemeral and- 

Nope, Will didn’t want it to be ephemeral. 

“Hello? Lady Iris?” 

Static answered him. _Static._ _YES._ This was promising. 

“Lady Iris, I need to talk to Nico di Angelo. He should be-”, Will paused. “Actually I don’t know where he is, please just connect me to him?” 

More static filled the air. Gradually, Will felt like he could discern voices, but maybe it was just wishful thinking and he was slipping into madness. 

“W…l…at…” 

Suddenly, Nico’s face appeared in the vapour. But before Will could properly beam at him, it flickered and went off again. 

“Nico?” the blonde asked tentatively. The vapour was starting to clear, and the rainbow faded a little. With one hand, Will opened the hot water arrival again, his other hand still glowing sunlight. 

He was starting to feel tired. 

“Will? C…y…ear…me?” Nico voice buzzed again, and this time Will was sure that he hadn’t dreamed. He almost dove face-first into the rainbow in an attempt to get closer to him, but restrained himself. Iris probably wouldn’t have appreciated it, and the connection was already bad enough. 

“Nico? Are you there? I can’t hear you clearly.” 

A heavy silence answered him, and Will’s heart sunk a notch into his stomach. What if they just couldn’t communicate? What if he was stuck in there until Ragnarok and had to escape wild knife throwing games in the halls forever? What if he could never see Nico again? 

The only comfort he had always found in death was that he wouldn’t be alone. But now he wasn’t so sure- the guy next door seemed friendly enough, but it wasn’t how Will had planned to spend his afterlife. He didn’t want to be in the luxurious Hotel Valhalla, he wanted to go down to Erebos and high-five Michael Yew and Lee Fletcher in Elysium and redecorate Nico’s room in Hades’ palace and- 

_Breathe, Will, breathe._

He took a deep breath, and realized that it wasn’t his inner voice speaking in his head. 

He looked up at the rainbow. 

“Hi,” Nico said. His image was still flickering like an old TV screen with bad satellite connection, but it seemed to have stabilized enough to allow them to talk clearly. A heavy weight suddenly disappeared from Will’s shoulders, and he almost went limp and fell on the floor. 

“I love you so much Nico,” he blurted out, and didn’t feel embarrassed about it in the slightest. He could have sworn Nico’s cheeks turned a shade redder, but the son of Hades would probably tell him that it was bad colour transmission. 

“Where are you, Will?” Nico asked, ignoring Will’s heartfelt declaration of his undying love. The blonde was a bit disappointed. 

“Valhalla, if you can believe it.” 

Nico seemed to believe him. Actually, the lack of shock was slightly unsettling. 

“You knew about Valhalla,” Will stated, not even a question. He had been aware for a long time that his boyfriend knew about a lot of things that he never told him. He had known about Camp Jupiter. And Will had once caught him holding a pure white feather, staring at it like he could see the answer to all his questions in it, and then had hastily hidden it behind his back when he had seen Will. 

Will hadn’t pressed back then. He also knew that he didn’t have time to press now. 

“Okay, you owe me an explanation later, di Angelo,” he said, frowning in a severe way. “How do I get out?” 

Nico winced and looked aside, thinking. Will’s legs started to wobble and a migraine knocked at the door of his head. He usually didn’t get tired so quickly, but he had to admit that he was in a very unusual setting. Maybe the hotel had changed its mind and decided it wanted to keep Will. Oh gods, he hoped not. 

“What hour is it in Valhalla?” Nico suddenly asked. Will frowned but didn’t comment. He contortioned his upper body back to check the clock on the wall of his room without disturbing the rainbow. 

“7:26 pm,” he said. “Why?” 

Nico flinched. _Uh oh, bad sign,_ Will thought. 

“Okay, listen, a Valkyrie is going to pick up you soon-” 

“Which is perfectly normal.” 

“-and bring you to dinner. You’ll be sitting at a table with other newly arrived heroes, and they will show videos of your deaths.” 

“What.” 

“Everytime, an old woman will check for potential godly parents. Will, you _can’t_ let her read you.” 

“Why?” 

Nico shook his head. 

“For centuries, ancient myths have kept their distance from each other, like the Greeks and Romans used to for a while. But now…” His voice trailed off. “They are not ready to know about us yet.” 

“But we know about them.” 

“ _I_ know about them because I am my father’s ambassador, and _you_ know because-” 

_Because you are dead,_ the words hanged silently in the air.Nico’s voice wavered and died in his throat. He looked away, as if trying to hide his face. Will squinted at the vapour. 

And gasped. 

“Oh my gods Nico, are you crying?” 

He didn’t mean for his voice to sound so surprised and loud, but it came out wrong and it obviously hurt the other boy. Will wanted to slap himself. 

“Of course I’m crying, you idiot!” Nico half screamed at him, tremors in his voice. “I felt you die! I felt your pain! Do you know what I- how it-” 

A sob cut him, and Will’s heart broke in his chest. He should have known by now, he should have known how Nico always put up a strong face to hide his pain, how he sometimes ignored things so they wouldn’t hurt him. How he bottled up his feelings for the sake of a mission. 

“I’m so sorry, Nico,” Will whispered. He wanted to reach out and pull the boy into a hug, to wrap his arms around his cold skin and warm him up until the tears dried up. The only thing he managed to do was to hold his fingers to the shimmering image, their tips passing through the projection. “I’m so sorry,” he repeated, his heart aching. 

In front of him, Nico shook his head again, and angrily wiped out his tears. Will knew that he was scolding himself for letting that outburst of feelings get in the way and consume some precious time. 

It left a bitter taste in his mouth. 

“We don’t have time to talk about that,” Nico said, voice more firm but still shaking a little. “I’m coming to get you, but you have to be careful. We have to assume that regular rules for einherjar don’t apply to you.” 

“What rules?” 

“If you get hurt, you might not be able to heal in Valhalla. And you might also not be able to leave to another of the Nine Worlds, especially our world.” 

Will considered the information. Part of him still wanted to talk about Nico’s feelings, but he knew that it wasn’t the moment. Besides, the son of Hades would probably kill him if he even tried to bring back the topic in the conversation. 

Even if he was already dead. 

“So, what do I have to do?” 

Nico passed a hand in his hair, thinking. Will resisted the urge to reach out and try to touch it. 

“The All-Father knows about us, he should be able to help.” 

“Great, where do I find him?” 

Nico hesitated. 

“That’s the thing, we’re not sure where he went. He returned to Valhalla for a while some time ago, but he took off again after.” 

“Uh,” Will commented, helpful. 

“You have to find his agent.” 

Will blinked. 

“His agent.” 

“Her name is Samirah al-Abbas. I’m not sure where she is either, but I know someone who-” 

Someone knocked at Will’s door. 

Both demigods froze and looked at each other. Nico’s already big eyes sized up even more, accentuating the hollowness of his cheeks and the bags under his eyes. 

The door made an ominous sound as it swung open. 

“Oh crap, oh crap-” Will muttered, his heartbeat soaring to the skies. He turned around to check, but he moved too fast. The rainbow wavered. 

“Will, listen!” Nico called in a hushed panicked voice. His voice was filling with static. “Find Magnus Chase, he’ll help you-” 

“Magnus?” Will repeated. 

“Find Magnus Chase!” Nico said again, before his image started violently flickering. “I lo-” 

The rainbow dissipated and the line went completely silent, leaving the son of Apollo alone in his bathroom. He moved a little, as if just emerging from a dream; but before he could collect his thoughts, a face appeared in the doorframe of the bathroom. It was a young Asian girl with tanned skin and sparkling brown eyes, her long hair hanging from a ponytail on the top of her head. She was wearing commando clothes and combat boots, and would have fitted nicely among the Hunters of Artemis if it wasn’t for the chainmail waistcoat glittering on her chest. 

The girl smiled, a bit shyly. 

“Hello!” the Valkyrie greeted. “I hope I’m not dropping by at an awkward moment?” 

She looked around the bathroom nervously. Will suddenly became very aware that he was hunched down above a sink filled with lukewarm water. Fortunately his Apollo magic had worn off, or he would have had a hard time explaining why his hand was glowing like a mini-sun. 

“Uh, no. It’s okay. I was just, er, washing my face.” 

The girl didn’t seem convinced, but she didn’t press. Will silently thanked her for that. 

“Well, if you are ready, I am here to take you to dinner!” she announced, a huge smile blossoming on her lips. Then she realized what her facial muscles were doing, and tried to repress the smile. 

“Haha, sorry,” she said, embarrassed. “You’re actually the first hero I bring here, so it’s all new for me too.” She hesitated, and doubt crossed her eyes. “I hope you don’t mind a novice accompanying you?” 

The tip of her ears turned red and she shifted awkwardly on her feet, waiting for Will’s answer. The demigod blinked. 

Then a smile spread on his face and he hiccupped out a laugh. The Valkyrie looked at him with confusion. 

“No, no, it’s alright, don’t worry!” Will chuckled. The effect of talking to Nico and having a mission were dawning inside of him, calming him and making him hopeful again. Plus, the Valkyrie didn’t look as scary as some of the myths depicted them to be, even though Will wouldn’t make the mistake of underestimating her fighting abilities. “What’s your name?” 

The girl blinked a couple more times at him, then seemed to relax and grinned. 

“I’m May,” she said. “Nice to meet you Will. I mean, consciously, since we technically already met.” 

She held out her hand, and Will shook it. 

“Nice to meet you, May.” 

The day didn’t seem nearly as gloomy as it was a few minutes ago. Actually, Will had a hard time remembering the fear he had felt when he thought he was stuck there forever. His smile widened. 

“Please show me the way to dinner, I’m starving,” he said, and May grinned back at him. 

As they walked towards the elevators, Will glanced at the plate on Magnus’ door, silently praying that he was the Magnus Nico had told him to find. Who knew how many Magnuses there were in that damn hotel? He didn’t feel particularly up to roaming through the 540 floors of Valhalla inspecting every door plate there was, even though he would since he didn’t have many options. 

“MAGNUS CHASE”, the door plate read. Will decided that this door plate was a friendly door plate. 

The memory of the blond boy’s grey eyes pushed itself to the front of his mind. Will was almost convinced Magnus was related to Annabeth, and it didn’t really surprise him. He had had his fair share of surprises for the day, and his brain just saturated. ( _Whatever_ , it seemed to grunt before metaphorically stepping into a closet and slamming the door.) Will wasn’t sure whether Magnus was up to speed on the Greek side of ancient gods having fun with the planet, but he was definitely his best shot at getting out of the hotel. 

So, great. He just had to knock at his neighbour’s door after dinner. Which led him to his other task. 

_Don’t let the old lady read your family tree._

The thought suddenly sent a cold shiver down Will’s spine, and his smile wavered. A lightbulb at his right flickered and went dark, and Will felt like the hotel was whimpering in fear. 

He gulped dryly. 

_Definitely don’t let the old lady read your family tree,_ Will thought, as the elevator’s door opened with a ding. May stepped inside and pressed a red rune after inserting a key. The spears ornamenting the door gleamed in a cold way as the door slid shut. 

_Great_ , Will thought. _Just great._

He suddenly wasn’t feeling that hungry anymore. 

 


	2. You can't spell 'dinner' without 'murder'

Will was 99 % sure the thanes were talking about him, because he was a smart and perceptive guy proudly walking in Sherlock Holmes’ footsteps. The looks and occasional fingers pointing at him might also have been a big giveaway. 

“The thanes seem… very interested in you,” May commented nervously. She was sitting at Will’s left, which left Will at the extreme end of the table as he had hoped for. He estimated that if he had to make a run for his (after)life, he _might_ have time to dash through the massive doors before a giant axe was hurled at his head. Maybe. 

Helgi glanced behind his chair and scowled with annoyance, as if someone was supposed to be there and wasn’t. He then pointed at Will again, and whispered something in his neighbour’s ears. Will mentally groaned. At least he also had Magnus Chase and his friends in his vision field. The einherji had smiled and waved at him when he had spotted him, then had flashed a thumbs up in an encouraging way. 

Either the guy was extremely friendly, or he had had an extremely bad experience of his first dinner and wanted no one else to suffer like him. 

“Hey!” a voice suddenly called. Will turned to see a tall red-haired girl playfully slap May in the back. She looked like a college kid wearing a medieval costume for a spectacle. “You’re the new girl, right? Looking forward to seeing what you brought us for your first time.” She then looked at Will and winked. 

Will had mixed feelings about that wink. 

“Anyway, I expect you’ll join us for the after-party, Valkyries only,” the girl continued, reporting her attention back to May. “It’s down the hall from 10 pm to midnight HVT.” 

“Uh,” the younger Valkyrie said hesitantly. She seemed to shrink at sight on her chair, and Will started feeling really sorry for her. “Yes, maybe? I have a lot of homework to do though…” 

“Ah, darn homework! Whatever you want, Nakamura, see you around!” 

The red-haired muttered a few more curses about homework and general school systems, then turned on her heels and walked away to slap other people’s backs and occasionally butts. 

Will sat frozen. Did he just hear- 

“Your family name is Nakamura?” he croaked out. He might have made a particularly strange face, because May flinched back into a defensive pose. 

“Yes?” she answered carefully. “I know it doesn’t sound very _Viking-ish_ , but it doesn’t mean that I-” 

“No no no!” Will cut off hastily, waving his hand. “It’s not what I meant, sorry. It’s just that… I knew a guy whose name was Nakamura too.” 

“Oh.” 

May’s body relaxed, and they stared at each other. 

“Hum, was he a good guy?” the girl asked after a moment of awkward silence. Her eyes were fixed on Will, gleaming with something like… hope? 

Will looked down at his plate, trying to find an answer. He knew that Ethan had made the right decision at the very end and had played a significant role in the Olympians’ victory, but he wasn’t sure it entirely made up for all the help he had provided for the Titans before. But maybe he was just biased because of his lineage. 

After all, Cabin Apollo had lost two counsellors in that war. 

“No, actually, don’t answer that,” May decided, effectively sparing Will from his uncomfortable thoughts. “Besides, we might not even be thinking of the same person. I mean, what are the odds?” she laughed. 

Will wanted to point out that as people meddling too close to the gods, their odds were often not so random, but he kept his mouth shut. 

“What are the odds indeed,” he just repeated with a small smile. 

May grinned back softly. She looked away, but then glanced back at Will, as if wanting to add something but unsure of whether she should. But before she could decide, Helgi stood up and the room fell silent. 

“Warriors!” he bellowed, and turned to Will’s table. His eyes seemed to be fixed directly on him, and his smile was weirdly wide. “It’s time to welcome our new heroes!” 

Thousands of einherjar cheered loudly, and Will’s heartbeat rose to a level he knew too well. 

It was survival time. 

 

  
* 

 

“Hi, excuse me, can I sit here please?” 

Magnus looked up from his plate, his mouth full of falafel. In front of him, a supermodel was smiling at him pleasantly, her hand on the empty chair next to him. 

Magnus paused for a moment, stunned, then chewed quickly and gulped down his food before opening his mouth. 

“Yeah, sure,” he said. The girl thanked him and sat down. She had long dark hair flowing down her shoulders like a mermaid’s, and stunning blue eyes that looked like a clear sky looked through a diamond. “I haven’t seen you around, are you new?” 

The girl chuckled. 

“Yes,” she simply replied. Magnus wanted to ask more questions, but it suddenly didn’t seem important. 

“Cool, I’m Magnus.” 

The girl’s eyes sparkled, almost in a knowing way. 

“Nice to meet you Magnus,” she grinned at him, and everything suddenly seemed alright. 

Later, Magnus would realize she hadn’t told him her name. 

 

  
* 

 

Watching one’s own death was an extremely peculiar experience, Will decided. The einherjar cheered and banged their fists on the table as video-he was repeatedly slamming his bow on the goldfish head. He hadn’t noticed it in the heat of combat, but the fish’s dead eyes had popped out and crashed on a wall nearby, leaving a splash of translucent liquid on the bricks. 

Will slightly wanted to puke. 

“You go, boy, you go!” a massive warrior bellowed, immediately followed by a choir of “Oooooooooh” from his table. More gore appeared on the screen, and there was a dramatic zoom on Will’s chest as the snake bit him. He smiled at the kids he had saved, his eyes rolled back and he crashed face-first on the floor. 

A solemn silence settled for one second on the room as the screen turned black, then the einherjar applauded. Will felt very light-headed. 

At their table, the thanes gathered to discuss in hushed voices. They threw a lot of looks at Will, and the boy didn’t like the frowned brows and crinkled noses pivoting in and off his direction. The thanes looked like evil puppets plotting to murder him - and Will had always been very weak against all matters of horror movies and spooky stories. He shivered. 

Moments passed, and the thanes didn’t seem to be closing on a decision. As the discussion stretched out, the applause gradually died off, and the warriors looked with annoyance at the main table. 

“What’s taking so long?” someone bawled. “The boy is obviously worthy!” 

Many more voices rose to agree. Will had to admit he was quite touched by the support, but a movement at the corner of his eyes abruptly made his happy sappiness crash into a wall of titanium at full speed. It was painful and it probably showed up on his face. 

The old woman – a _vala_ , according to May – had stepped forward and was staring at him from a few meters away (presumably, since he couldn’t see her face), and he still hadn’t come up with a good plan to keep her from throwing her runes and maybe reveal that he was the child of a god from another pantheon. He had considered feigning sudden madness, screaming and running away. He had considered “accidentally” flipping the (delicious) content of his plate on her. He had considered just taking his chance and hope for the best. 

None of the options were convincing, and he was dangerous leaning towards the last one. 

Helgi stood up and asked for silence. The assembly complied. 

“We have no doubt that Will Solace died a hero-,” he started. 

“Then what’s the problem?” someone shouted from the end of the room. 

“-but we have some questions to ask him first.” 

A stunned silence fell on the tables, and a few thousands of eyes turned in Will’s direction. No stress. 

“Questions from the thanes? Wow, this hadn’t happened since forever,” a Valkyrie whispered at his table. 

_Oh no,_ Will thought, and went very still. _If I don’t make it please tell my mom that I am sorry for not having being a better son, and tell Nico that I love him and I’m sorry for teasing him on his height. Wait, no, actually I’m not sorry,_ he prayed to no one in particular. 

He glanced at May, who looked back at him, her eyes filled with confusion. He then looked over at Magnus’ table, hoping to see a friendly face in the staring crowd, maybe he would even- 

Will completely froze, and his eyes grew twice in size in shock. 

Was that- 

“Will Solace, you are obviously familiar with the ways of magic. Your weapon is also an interesting one we had never seen before. May we ask where you got it?” 

_My dad gave it to us and it was passed down on me from my predecessor who died fighting Titans, who also got it from his predecessor who also died fighting monsters. Oh, by the way, my dad is Apollo._

Will almost blurted out that answer, but from a couple of tables away, a beautiful dark-haired girl slowly shook her head and pressed a finger to her lips. She then smiled and winked at him. At her side, Magnus was staring weirdly at thin air, as if he had just received too much information and his brain had a hard time computing. 

Will had the feeling he was seeing a ghost, which was ironical since he was also dead. 

The girl stood up, her chair making a deafening rattling in the heavy silence. 

“My lords, may I have your attention, please,” she announced. Every pair of eyes left Will and turned in her direction. Some people gasped. Will distinctly heard May make a startled noise, followed by a quiet awestruck “Oooh.” 

The demigod’s lips curled up a bit, amused. He had to admit, the former head of Cabin Aphrodite was stunning. 

“Who are you?” Helgi asked. His face looked like it couldn’t decide between frowning and letting its jaw hit the floor. His tone also sounded unsure, halfway between threat and wishful expectancy. 

“You know my mother as the goddess of love,” Silena Beauregard replied. Some einherjar started whispering among themselves. Many were still gaping stupidly at her. 

Will could feel the waves of magic washing through the room, making everyone listen to Silena and trust her. Her voice vibrated with charmspeak, like a melody softly lulling Will into a peaceful daze. 

He had never seen any child of Aphrodite mesmerize such a huge assembly so easily. 

_Wake up,_ a voice whispered in his head, and he pinched his forearm. The daze cleared a little, but obviously not everyone in attendance had a helpful talking consciousness murmuring in the back of their minds. Nico had emitted the hypothesis that it was a Muse who had decided to adopt him, but when Will had enquired with a delighted innocence what made his boyfriend think so (“Your drawings are worthy of Michaelangelo, Will!” “Will, your poetry is wonderful and I want to listen to it for the rest of eternity!”), Nico had just stared at him blankly and proclaimed those cursed words: 

“You’re such a drama queen that one must have noticed you.” 

Will had wailed for long minutes afterwards and tackled Nico to take revenge in a tickling battle. The whole thing didn’t go according to plan though, and the son of Apollo just ended with the mark of a chair’s foot imprinted across the cheek. He still felt the burn in his very soul. 

“Freya? Oh, gods, I knew the boy was Vanir spawn,” Helgi whimpered, taking his head in his hands. 

“My mother’s kin wishes to retrieve Will,” Silena continued. “He belongs with us by blood. Surely, you wouldn’t have any objections, my lords?” 

She glanced at Will. The demigod realized with fear that her features were strained and her whole body tense. 

She wouldn’t be able to keep up that trick for very long. 

“Uh,” Helgi hesitated. His eyes were distant, and seemed a bit lost. “But a Valkyrie claimed him, and he has already checked in Valhalla…” 

“My lord,” Silena insisted. Her voice was starting to feel a bit strained. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of her face. “Mistakes have been made before. We have always been able to solve them peacefully.” 

“Uh,” Helgi repeated. 

From the corner of his eyes, Will saw several warriors shaking their heads, as if they were trying to get rid of the last remnants of a dream. Silena’s magic was wearing off too quickly. 

“My lords!” another voice suddenly called. Will jumped 20 cm into the air, and his heart missed a beat. He slowly turned his head. May had stood up, looking straight at the thanes with determination. 

She bowed deeply. 

“I am the Valkyrie who wrongfully claimed Will Solace’s soul,” she said. “I do not want my mistake to start another conflict between the Aesir and the Vanir.” 

She turned to Silena, who had almost completely dropped her magic as soon as everyone’s attention had left her. 

“My lady, if your kin wishes to punish someone, I am taking the responsibility, and laying my honour as a Valkyrie to your feet.” 

She bowed again, and stayed like that. From his place, Will could see her eyes gleaming wet and her lips shaking. She was terrified, and she didn’t show any sign of having been affected by the charmspeak. She knew that Silena was bluffing. And yet, she had put herself out for them. 

How? And more importantly… why? 

Eyes turned back to the daughter of Aphrodite. 

“Oh,” she said, hesitating. Some warriors frowned. More looked around in a daze, as if emerging from a pleasant dream and unsure about their whereabouts. 

But before she could say anything more, Hunding suddenly ran through the doors and dashed to the thanes’ table, an even more stormy expression than usual on his face. His hair had reached Helgi level of wildness, and his bloodshot eyes were throwing virtual lightning bolts. 

“INTRUDER!” he bellowed, and half the room gasped and reached for weapons. He then looked around, and his eyes stopped on Silena, who had frozen in the middle of sitting down to hide herself. With a snarl, he raised an accusing finger at her. 

“THAT’S HER! SHE IS A SPY FROM OUR ENEMIES! KILL HER!” 

Silena looked at Will, and a silent message passed between them. 

It was time to figure out whether Will’s prognostics were right. 

Without a word, they both made a run towards the open doors. 

 

  
* 

 

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” Will screamed, still running through the many corridors of Hotel Valhalla. The war cries of thousands of einherjar made it hard to hear his own voice. He was also fairly sure he could hear wolves howling somewhere in the building. He didn’t want to check. 

“NICO SENT ME,” Silena screamed back. “EXPLAIN LATER.” 

She guided him towards the elevators, and jumped in the first one. She took out a key ring and inserted one at the same place May had before diner. Then she pressed the 0 button. 

“Where did you get that?” Will asked. “By the way, what you did in there was really impressive.” 

“Doorman, and thanks,” Silena simply answered. Her breaths were laboured, and she was leaning on the side of the cage, one hand on her waist. Will carefully extended a hand towards her shoulder, silently asking for permission. Silena didn’t move away. 

“Don’t know if it’ll work here,” he grunted. He carefully placed his hand on her arm, and concentrated. After a few seconds, a warm yellow glow covered his hand and spread to Silena’s body, and the demigoddess’ breathing steadied. 

“Thank you,” she said, then paused, as if listening to something. “Nico says thanks too,” she added, a sly smile pulling at her lips. 

Will blinked at her. 

“What?” 

Silena’s grin widened, but before she could answer, the elevator came to a stop. “Ground floor”, the automatic voice announced. The doors opened, and a pack of wolves stared at them, snarling. 

“ _Nope_ ,” Will said, and slammed the 19 button. The doors closed just as a wolf launched at them. It made a loud thud as it crashed on the metal. 

The elevator soared upwards. 

 

  
* 

 

“What now?” Will asked, as soon as he had closed the door to his room. Theoretically speaking, no one could get inside besides him and his guests. But given how the hotel had mixed feelings about him, he wasn’t sure how long they were safe. 

Silena had walked to the wall of glass, and was staring silently at the scenery outside. 

It was a view on what should have been Camp Half-Blood, but Will guessed the Mist applied here too. 

“I miss being there, sometimes,” the girl whispered. She raised a hand and carefully put in on the glass, as if she could touch the illusion outside. “I also missed another war, from what I’ve heard.” 

The reminder of all the battles made Will’s heart ache. It also made him remember that Silena had being a spy for Luke at the beginning, then had died trying to fix her mistakes. 

Like Ethan. 

A bitter taste settled in his mouth. 

“I’m sorry for your losses, Will,” Silena said softly, as if she had read his mind. “I know that nothing I say could possibly redeem me from what I did, but I am here to help you.” 

“I know,” Will said. 

_I forgive you,_ Will wished he had the strength to say. 

Silena smiled weakly at him, then turned back to Long Island. 

“Nico is pulling in favours from everywhere to get you back,” she laughed. “He’s a real keeper, isn’t he?” 

Will felt his cheeks heat up a little, a pleasant warmth spreading in his chest. He opened his mouth to comment and maybe ask what she had meant earlier about Nico saying thanks, but all words died in his throat. 

Someone was knocking at the door. The boy froze and instinctively reached for his plastic ruler, but Silena put a hand on his chest. She silently approached the door, then knocked at it twice. 

A series of three knocks answered her. 

She glanced at Will, then gestured at the doorknob. Oh, right, only he could manoeuver that door. 

“Who is it?” Will asked. 

Silena smiled. 

“Help.” 

Will frowned a little, but figured that he had to trust her if he wanted to get out of there alive, or whatever it was called to be existing after death. 

He cracked the door open. 

“Hi, man,” Magnus greeted. “My pals jammed the elevators for the moment, but they’ll be up soon enough. So, it’d be great if you could let me in, please and thank you.” 

He then pushed the door and stepped inside Will’s room. 

 

  
* 

 

“Nico.” 

The boy looked up from the bag he was packing and turned around. His father was standing at his door, almost awkwardly. 

“What?” he asked. Hades stared at him silently, as if looking for his words. Even after millennia of existence, the god obviously still wasn’t used to have proper talks with his children, but Nico was too focused on his mission to really even resent him for his poor parenting skills. 

“I know you care a lot for that Apollo boy, son, but-” his voice trailed off. 

Nico frowned. 

“But,” Hades tried again. “The balance of our worlds is what matters the most. If it comes down to it, I just want to know that you’ll make the right decision.” 

Nico stared at his father, silent. Something hot was steering inside of him, and he knew what it was. 

The boy thought about how he had fled Camp Half-Blood the first time. How he had blamed Percy for Bianca’s death. How shameful he had been when Cupid had forced him to confess his crush on Percy. 

He thought about all the long nights he had spent alone in the dark, nursing the broken pieces of his soul, a soul so damaged that even the goddess of misery had found no way to break it more. 

“No,” he said, and had the satisfaction of seeing his father’s features shift in surprise. “You were unable to save my mother, but it doesn’t mean that I will fail like you.” 

Hades winced. Maybe it was a bit unfair to use the memory of his mother’s death like that, but Nico was past caring. He zipped his bag with a quick and firm gesture, then slid in on his back. 

“I love him, father,” he said, and realized it was the first time he had admitted it in front of the Lord of the Underworld. A warm heat grew in his chest. “I love him, and I will get him back.” 

Hades didn’t move or say a word as his son walked past him, a determined look in his eyes. 

When his footsteps vanished in the distance, the god slowly shook his head. 

“You are smiling, my dear,” Persephone said, suddenly appearing at his side. 

Hades looked at her and checked his facial muscles. She was right. He was smiling. How odd. 

He tried to suppress it, but it just wouldn’t leave completely. He frowned. Persephone chuckled in a knowing way. 

“They grow up so fast, don’t they?” she laughed softly, and Hades understood what she meant. He looked thoughtfully in the direction Nico had left. 

“Indeed, my dear, indeed.” 

 

  
* 

 

“Aphrodite? Nice.” and “Apollo? Wow, cool.” were the only reactions Magnus had when the Greek demigods told him who their godly parents were. 

“How did you even convince him to help if you didn’t tell him?” Will frowned at Silena. 

The girl shrugged. 

“I just said that I knew Annabeth and told him 10 embarrassing moments starring her so he would have teasing material for their next lunch.” 

Will stared at the son of Frey. 

“You are having lunch together?” 

Magnus grinned. 

“Yep, gotta keep the Chase cousins dynamics alive. Besides, she already told me about your camp, so I knew you two were demigods. Just didn’t know which ones you were. By the way, are you two an item?” 

“Ugh, no!” the Greeks exclaimed together, horrified, then looked at each other. “I have a boyfriend,” they both said at the same time again. 

Magnus didn’t look surprised. 

“Okay, cool.” 

Will raised an eyebrow at him, and he shot back a shit eating grin. The son of Apollo sighed. 

“Anyway, what’s the plan now?” 

He turned towards Silena, but the demigoddess’ eyes were vague, her head tilted as if she were earnestly listening to something. Will couldn’t hear anything besides their own breathings. He waved his hand in front of her eyes. She didn’t react. 

Just as he was going to shake her, Silena’s eyes suddenly focused again. 

“Sorry about that,” she said. She looked at Will. “Your boyfriend just announced his undying love for you to his dad and was slightly freaking out.” 

Will made a strangled noise that almost sounded like a word. 

“Also he’s on his way,” Silena resumed, not paying attention to the son of Apollo’s reaction. “But he probably won’t be able to get in, with the commotion we created. And we’ll still have to bargain your soul with Odin. Since a Valkyrie claimed you, it rightfully belongs to him.” 

“What?” Will shrieked, his body suddenly feeling very cold. He did not like the idea of his soul belonging to anyone, especially not a god he had never seen except with Anthony Hopkins’ face. 

Magnus looked at him with compassion. 

“Oh yeah, no one told you? The moment your Valkyrie grabbed you, you had a ‘PROPERTY OF ODIN’ seal burned on your butt cheeks.” 

Will stared at him. 

“He’s kidding,” Silena clarified. “Probably.” 

Will stared at her. 

“I think the poor boy’s brain just overloaded,” Magnus commented helpfully, the faintest trace of sarcasm in his voice. He opened his mouth for more slightly witted sarcastic comments, but stopped midway, mouth gaping and eyes wide. He sat up straight and pointed at Will. “Is this normal?” 

The other boy didn’t know what he was talking about. He looked down. 

_Oh._

A faint light was emanating from his skin, like when he was healing himself. But Will couldn’t remember having sustained an injury after he had arrived there. So why- 

Static suddenly filled the air. The lights flickered and went dark, leaving Will to be the only source of light in the room. The scenery out the window disappeared, revealing complete darkness. There wasn’t even a star to be seen. 

“Okay,” Magnus said. “I already thought it weird enough that you didn’t have that giant tree invading your room, but that’s definitely not normal.” 

Almost to agree with him, an ominous noise ran through the wall, like in movies when something very _very_ bad was going to happen. 

It didn’t miss. 

As the roars of bloodthirsty warriors reached them from the end of the corridor, the windows shattered with a deafening sound, and the three demigods were sucked into the void. 


	3. Cool bonding tips - try the endless void

Will’s stomach and chest hurt a lot, like he had collided full force with a small train. He also felt way heavier than usual. 

He groaned and cracked an eye open. 

“Hey handsome,” a voice called from below him. “If it’s not too much to ask, could you please, like, climb on that door? You have a nice butt and all, but I’d like to see something else before I die again.” 

Will wasn’t sure he had heard well. His head felt like cotton, and he had a taste of bile in his mouth. He slowly opened his two eyes, blinked a couple of times and looked around, which was easy because there was nothing to see. In front of him, his arms were still glowing in the darkness, only source of comfort in the emptiness. He wasn’t sure why they did that. Maybe his body had just reacted to his primordial fear of darkness? (Yes, Will was scared of the dark. And yes, he was dating that one guy who looked like he was using shadows as a power source. Fight him.) His survival instincts had apparently worked without him being particularly conscious, because his arms were resolutely wrapped on a piece of wood, like a shipwrecked sailor hanging on a drifting plank. A golden door plate near his right elbow read “WILL SOLACE” in wobbly letters. 

Hotel Valhalla had apparently grown tired of waiting for Will to walk out, and had decided to take matters into its own divine building hands. Which meant ejecting him into space. Though this space was breathable (did dead people even breathe?) and appeared to have some form of gravity. 

“Anyone up there?” 

Will looked down and saw Magnus grinning at him, the faint light from his skin drawing strange shadows on the other boy’s face. 

The son of Frey also had his arms around Will’s waist and his cheek pressed against the curve of his ass. 

“Sup,” he said. 

Will screamed. 

 

  
* 

 

“Where’s Silena?” Will asked, after the two demigods had safely climbed on the door floating in the middle of nowhere. He still felt a weird burn on his rear, and was afraid it had forever been imprinted with a Magnus-shaped mark. Right along the ‘PROPERTY OF ODIN’ seal, if it somehow even did exist (Will shuddered at the off-chance Magnus hadn’t been joking, but resisted the urge to check). 

Magnus looked over into the emptiness where there was nothing to look at. 

“I don’t know, I remember seeing her being propelled into this with us, but then she hit something and disappeared. Maybe your boyfriend called her soul back?” 

Will hoped that he was right. He didn’t have the beginning of a clue about what kind of magic Nico had used to send Silena’s soul to Valhalla, but he hoped that she was safe now, back in Elysium. 

“By the way, he’s a demigod too I guess?” Magnus asked. 

Will nodded. 

“Son of Hades.” 

The other boy whistled. 

“Apollo and Hades? Never would have thought of that.” 

Will grinned half-heartedly. 

“Yeah, we get that a lot.” 

Magnus hummed in acknowledgment, and they sat back in silence for a while. 

“What now?” Magnus asked. 

“I don’t know. Where are we even?” 

The son of Frey looked thoughtfully around. 

“I’m gonna take a wild guess and say the Gap. Don’t ask me to say its actual name, I never managed to remember it.” He paused. “But maybe we drifted into something of yours, so you tell me.” 

Will shook his head. 

“No, you’re probably right.” 

“I have never been so sad about being right.” 

“How do we get out of here?” 

Magnus shrugged. 

“You’re glowing like a lighthouse, so there’s already that. With a bit of luck, a Valkyrie will spot us on her way and pick us up. If she doesn’t kill us first.” He paused again, and scratched his head. “I don’t know if it’d be _permanent_ , but it sure as hell would be tons of _painful_.” 

“Great,” Will muttered. 

They fell silent again. The only sounds left were their breathings, amplified and muffled down at the same time by the strange physics ruling over the nothingness around them. If Will listened to them long enough, the otherworldly echoes of their own lives made it feel like other creatures were quietly slithering around them. He shivered. 

The coldness and constant semi-obscurity of Cabin Hades suddenly felt like a summer day in a flower field to him. 

Will’s last talk with Nico slowly resurfaced from the back of his mind, and it filled him with both warmth and sadness. The looming emptiness of his surroundings was starting to seep inside of him, tainting everything in grey and whispering in silent voices in his head. 

_Give up, give up, give up…_

Will slapped himself. Magnus looked at him curiously, but didn’t comment. His eyes had gone empty, and he was absently fiddling with the pendant around his necklace. 

“What’s this?” Will asked. 

“My sword. His name is Jack.” 

Will waited for more details. They didn’t come. 

“Okay,” he let go, and they went back to sitting in silence. Will closed his eyes and imagined that he was back at Camp Half-Blood. He summoned his happy memories, bringing him back to his first day at camp, when his father had claimed him, when Lee had pulled him in an embrace and called him brother, when the others had cheered and showed him around the cabin; his first Capture the Flag, where he had utterly failed at protecting the flag at all, but still had more fun than he ever had in his entire life; the first time he had worked at the infirmary, how complete taking care of the wounded had made him feel. 

The first time he had slipped his hand into Nico’s, and Nico hadn’t pulled away. How they had stopped and looked at each other, the smaller boy’s face lit red to the tip of his ears; how they had almost kissed but were interrupted by a couple of Ares campers crashing their chariot into Cabin Hermes and it had caused a huge commotion. 

How it had taken days for Will to come around and find another occasion to properly smooch his boyfriend. 

He sighed. Despite them being “official”, Nico had never told him that he loved him. He did show his affection in a lot of ways, like when he softly headbutted Will’s arm to get his attention, or when he cuddled on his chest for a nap. But he had never voiced it. 

Until their last conversation, and the connection had cut him off. Why did he insist so much for Will to find Magnus again? If he hadn’t repeated it, he would have had the time to- 

Will suddenly snapped his eyes open and leaned towards Magnus. The other boy lazily looked up at him, any trace of smug and sass erased from his features. His grey eyes had grown more distant. 

Uh, that was bad. 

Will crawled to him and shook him ruthlessly. 

“Hey, hey!” he called. “Stay with me!” 

“Urf,” Magnus grunted, some life coming back into his eyes. 

“Do you happen to know a Samirah al-Abbas?” Will asked, shaking him a bit more for good measure. The moment he said the name, Magnus’ eyes lit up and he tried to sit up. 

And headbutted Will in the nose. Hard. 

“Ow!” Will yelled, a hand on his face. Immediately, Magnus surged at him and full-on facepalmed him (???), almost scratching some skin off. Before Will could even protest against that gratuitous second attack against his person, he felt his nose mending itself – and in no time, the pain was gone and his nose was good as new. 

He stared at Magnus. 

“You’re welcome,” the Norse demigod said. “Though I’m the one who broke your nose to begin with, so I’d understand why you wouldn’t want to thank me.” 

Will blinked. 

“Thanks,” he said. “I didn’t know you had healing powers too.” 

Magnus grinned. 

“I guess our dads have a lot in common.” 

He paused, then tilted his head like an owl. 

“Thinking about it, he’s supposed to be the god of sunshine or something too, so why aren’t I glowing like you?” 

Will pondered the question. 

“Maybe you just aren’t the glowing type,” he shrugged. 

“Uh, too bad. Looks tiring to diffuse light like that constantly anyway.” 

Will paused, and stared at Magnus like he had said something either very stupid or very smart. 

“What?” the son of Frey asked, hoping it was the latest. 

“I actually don’t feel tired,” Will answered quietly. It was true, he hardly felt any strain even though it had exhausted him just to make his hand glow not so long ago. As if to agree with him, his arms briefly shone brighter in the way a ceiling lamp would, then dimmed down to night-light level again. 

In front of him, Magnus seemed to come to a realization as well. 

“Healing you wasn’t hard either,” he said. “I mean, it was just a broken nose, but still.” 

Both demigods looked at each other silently, pondering over their new discovery. 

“Maybe we’re sharing the effort? It happened with my friends on our last quest,” Magnus eventually offered. Will didn’t find a better theory, so he accepted that one, as strange as it was. He had never heard of anything of the kind happening with his fellow Greek demigods, but his current situation was far from being usual, even by extreme supernatural standards. 

And if it weren’t true, it was pretty convenient anyway. 

“So,” Magnus resumed after a moment. “You were asking about Sam?” 

Will nodded, and told him what Nico had said. His body was starting to heat up again, a sense of purpose reinstalling in his chest and sharpening his senses. The familiar focus of a problem needing to be solved - whether it be maths or a reckless demigod to patch up - made his heart race up a bit. 

Gods, he really missed the infirmary. 

“Ah, yeah. She’s running special secret errands for the All-Father,” Magnus explained, then shrugged. “I don’t know where she is though.” 

Will’s shoulders immediately slumped down, and the rush of adrenaline that had revived him drained away in a blink. If they couldn’t find Sam, then they couldn’t find Odin either, and if they couldn’t find Odin, then- 

“But,” Magnus added, a finger pointing up and a shitty smile spread on his face. He apparently greatly enjoyed Will’s quick trip into darkness. Ignoring the murder glare the son of Apollo was shooting him, he dug into his pockets and fished out a rectangular object. 

A cellphone. 

“If we can get to a place with service, then I could call her.” 

 

  
* 

 

“I’m sorry I couldn’t do more,” Silena said. Her voice vibrated with exhaustion, but Nico knew she was sincere; if she could, she would probably go back to battle without a second of hesitation. 

“It’s okay,” he smiled, and he meant it. He didn’t know why everyone always kept underestimating children of Aphrodite; he only really knew two of them, but they were both some of the most loyal and brave people he had ever met. “You have already done enough.” 

Silena weakly grinned back, but her smile was sad and unconvinced. Even though she had been granted access to Elysium, she had never really managed to forgive herself for what she had done during the Titans War. Nico could relate to that. 

He, too, had made some bad decisions and trusted the wrong people. 

“You should rest, Silena,” the demigod said softly. He nodded at Charles Beckendorf, who was silently standing a few meters away, waiting for them to finish talking. He hadn’t been pleased with it, but he had eventually accepted to play along with the secrecy of the mission. Silena’s pleading eyes were a bit hard to resist. 

But more than that, even though Silena had a hard time trusting her own judgement, Charles believed in her. Her treason was hard to forgive, but if death had taught him one thing, it was that what had been done couldn’t be undone. Admitting one’s mistakes and acting on them was also hard, especially for children of prideful gods whose vanity had often caused misery; and for showing that strength, the boy believed that Silena deserved his support and trust. 

As soon as the son of Hades gestured at him, Charles closed the distance between himself and his girlfriend in a few long strides and pulled her against him. She might be dead, but her soul still consumed a lot of energy on that mysterious important trip. If he squinted, Charles could see the impeccable lawn of Elysium’s gardens through her. 

“Let’s go,” he said quietly. Silena hummed in agreement, eyes already half-closed. He nodded at Nico, then turned away, gently guiding them towards their apartments. 

Nico thoughtfully looked at them until they disappeared behind the gigantic fountain of Dionysus pouring water from a jar twice his size (it was originally planned to be Poseidon, but then Mr D. had started whining and unrolling a scroll that – supposedly – contained a list of everything he had done for Camp Half-Blood, and Hades only had that much patience). The demigod then looked down at his closed fist, opening it carefully. The white fluff Silena had handed back to him rested motionless in his palm, the only remnants of the Feather of Truth he had taken forever to extract from Anubis’ ruthless bargaining. He had sought it for another big project he was nursing in his head, but when he had figured it could help him get Will’s soul back without causing a major uprise between the different pantheons, it was pretty much decided in a matter for 0.2 seconds. 

Surely that jackal-head had other Feathers to spare anyway. 

“Mind your language, young man.” 

Nico froze and very slowly turned his head. Three meters away from him, a small jackal (really?) was sitting on its rear in the shades of the giant apple tree marking the entrance of Elysium, its intelligent eyes glittering with a ghostly light. 

What a coincidence, it was like it had been peering from behind and waiting for the right moment to announce its presence— oh wait. 

Nico made a face. 

“I don’t recall allowing you to read my mind,” the demigod said. The jackal yawned and stretched lazily, then trotted to the edge of the shadow and sat back. 

“I didn’t,” Anubis said. The jackal’s muzzle didn’t move. “It was just written all over your face.” 

Nico raised an eyebrow at him. The jackal tilted its head. 

“More importantly,” Anubis continued, while his host started scratching its ears frenetically. “You made a dangerous bet with that one. Transporting a soul from one afterlife to another using magic from a third? That’s unprecedented, as far as I’m concerned. What made you think it would work?” 

Nico looked away. His gaze fell upon the fountain again, and the afterimage of Silena slowly and tiredly walking away lingered in front of his eyes. 

“You told me that when Percy and Annabeth met the Kanes, they created a whole new kind of magic by combining their powers. The Feather weights exactly one righteous soul, so I just used it as a vessel for Silena and shadow-travelled her. When you want to build a bridge between two countries who distrust each other, your best choice is to call a third-party.” 

He paused, a troubled cloud passing through his eyes. 

“I didn’t know _for sure_ that it would work, though.” 

The jackal stopped its toilet and looked at the demigod curiously. 

“So you consciously put that girl in danger. Not only that, but you knew that her soul would have burned up, had she said a single mistruth while holding the Feather.” 

“Does it make me a bad person?” 

Nico turned around and completely faced the jackal. Its eyes gleamed gold for a second, surprised, before going back to the warm brown they usually were. The sides of its mouth curled up, almost like a smile. 

“Would you have done the same if it were your sister Hazel?” 

Nico winced. Lately, Hazel had decided to stay at Camp Half-Blood for the winter holidays, and the two siblings had spent nights talking to each other in the obscurity of Cabin Hades. They had joked that it almost felt like confessing to a priest, what with them not being able to see the other’s face. But it had felt safe too, and even though they were cut from each other by a veil of shadows, they had never felt closer. 

If he had told her that she was the only one he trusted to carry out a mission that had 42 ways of going wrong to save someone he loved, what would she have said? 

_Just 42 ways? Easy, bring it on._

“Yes,” Nico eventually replied, and the word carried the taste of truth. A little smile spread on his lips. “And she would have done the same for me. It’s called respect and trust.” 

The jackal blinked a few times, very slowly. Then it closed its eyes, and rolled on its back. 

“Then that’s all you need, Child of Death.” 

The jackal rolled back on its feet and shook its head. When it looked up again at Nico, its eyes had lost the ethereal glitter of Anubis’ presence. It barked a couple of times, then leaped away and disappeared behind the apple tree. 

A small breeze swept past Nico, as he stood silently there. After a moment, he shifted his feet and rolled his shoulders, rearranging the straps of his bag. 

“Alright,” he muttered. “Time to-” 

A telephone suddenly rang in his back. Nico jumped in the air with a yelp, and turned back in a defensive battle position, his sword gleaming darkly in his hand. 

Two seconds after, he felt his face turn very red in embarrassment. A beautiful rainbow had appeared in the fountain, shining lazily under Elysium’s eternal sun. 

If rainbows could snort and click their tongues, this one would have. 

“I have a message for Nico di Angelo,” Iris’ recorded voice emanated from the multi-coloured ark spreading under Dionysus’ marble feet. “Do you wish to pick up the call? We kindly remind you that communication outside of the mortal world leads to additional service fees.” 

Nico blinked at the rainbow, his heart speeding up a bit. Will’s face immediately jumped to the front of his mind, but from what Silena had told him, it was very unlikely that he would be able to find water to send him a message. And even if he somehow _did_ manage to find a floating blob of water, Ginnungagap was the whitest spot of white spots. Even Tartarus probably had better reception. 

But it was also the safest place Will could be for the moment, isolated from unfriendly forces. 

“I’ll take the call,” Nico answered, sliding his sword back into its sheath and carefully stepping closer to the fountain. He didn’t know who it might be, but no one called him for small talk. 

The rainbow didn’t react. 

“We kindly remind you that communication outside of the mortal world leads to additional service fees,” it repeated. 

Nico made an exasperated noise that weirdly sounded like a cat hissing, and looked for change in his pockets. He flipped a drachma into the water. 

The rainbow shimmered, and a young girl Nico had never seen appeared. She wasn’t looking in his direction, as if surveying a situation in the distance. He frowned. 

“Who are you?” 

The girl startled and turned back. Nico absently noticed that she looked kind of familiar. 

“Wow, is this really working?” she whispered, eyes glancing all around in awe. Nico coughed, making her jump again. She immediately focused on him, some redness spreading on her tanned face, and her features shifted into an expression of pure embarrassment. 

“Oh, hi,” she said, and wiggled awkwardly. “Erm, I assume you are Nico?” 

“Yes. Who are you?” 

A loud bang came from the other side of the video, and the girl looked back nervously. Fear gleamed in her eyes. 

“You don’t know me, but I know Will Solace,” she whispered rapidly, leaning forward. “I’m the Valkyrie who brought him to Valhalla.” 

Nico frowned. 

“Say what, now. And how do you know my n-” 

“Listen,” the girl cut him, urgency seeping at high speed in her voice. More bangs resonated behind her, and she kept glancing everywhere. “Samirah al-Abbas contacted me. She said that the same thing that happened to her is happening to me.” 

“You’re with Sam?” 

The girl shook her head. 

“She is on another mission for the All-Father, but she advised me to contact you.” 

Just as the girl finished her sentence, something massive cracked down with an ominous noise behind her, followed by the deafening sound of heavy objects hitting the floor. The image shook violently. 

“Gotta go,” the girl breathed with panic. Her image started flickering. 

“Wait, how can I find you?” Nico called after her. 

The girl screamed something back, and the rainbow dissipated. 

The sudden silence after the earthquake (?) he had witnessed through the video left Nico somewhat unbalanced. He stumbled back and hit a statue of Apollo very inconveniently placed in the middle of the path (although it was probably a demand from the god himself, knowing him; so that even dead, people would never forget his _fantastic_ presence and remember to get out of his way if they didn’t want to get a painful encounter with his flawless marble knees). 

Nico turned back in a daze and leaned his hands on the right flawlessly marble knee, his head feeling like someone had thrown him in a particularly fast and vicious washing machine. 

The demigod forcefully closed and opened his eyes a few times, blinking the nausea away, then rubbed his face with his hands. Iris messages usually didn’t leave him that queasy. But he also rarely received calls in the Underworld, and when he did it was usually at his father’s palace where he could take advantage of the Lord of the Underworld’s premium account service (he was a daddy’s boy like that, and felt no shame about it). He crunched his nose. 

Maybe Iris was just unhappy about him receiving calls outside of her usual range of service and protested against it by giving him a headache. 

Maybe next time he should throw two drachmas in the rainbow. 

“Urf,” Nico grunted, then shook his head and slapped his cheeks. It wasn’t time to have a philosophical debate with himself about fair rates for divine video messaging. But then again, it was true that minor gods were somewhat underpaid and- 

He slapped himself again, and felt slightly better. 

_“Meet me at the World Tree at sunset!”_ the girl had shouted before the call ended. 

Nico frowned and slowly started pacing under Apollo’s indifferent stone eyes. Some part of him wanted to shake the statue and point out that the god should, maybe – gee, he didn’t know – _help_. It was his son they were talking about, for Tartarus’ sake. But gods had very different concepts of parental duties than mortals, so Nico didn’t really expect the archer god to take out his flaming chariot and arrows and crash into Valhalla’s dining hall demanding for his baby boy to be released. 

Nico snickered. It would be both embarrassing and hilarious. But mostly very unwanted. 

The whole point of sending Silena, a daughter of Freya’s Greek counterpart, had been to do things steadily. The steady part had monumentally failed, but at least the vala hadn’t been able to read Will and they hadn’t blown their cover (too much). But he was digressing. 

Nico stopped and sat down on the edge of the fountain. He had originally planned to sneak into Ginnungagap by himself and fish Will (and Magnus) out. Navigating and shaping complete darkness wasn’t a problem for him, and if Silena was right, Will was currently glowing like a (very cute) (don’t tell him that) human-sized lightbulb anyway. It was probably feasible. Probably. 

On the other hand, he now had a Valkyrie. An official member of one of the only squads who could navigate through the Gap, though they usually didn’t deem it worth the risk and preferred to stick to the beaconed path to Valhalla. Sam told him that she had once tried to explore a little, just to see if there really was nothing, but an older Valkyrie had seen her fly away and pulled her back by the hair screaming. It had been a very humiliating experience, but the legit fear she had seen in her comrade’s eyes had convinced her that she had to stay put. For the moment, at least. 

But then, could he trust that unknown Valkyrie? She had no reason to lie about being the one who took Will to Valhalla, but there was a thing about her that made Nico’s instincts recoil defensively. She hadn’t told him her name, but the more he thought about it, the more familiar she looked. Not just physically. Her aura also had a bitter taste of déjà-vu. 

_How did she send an Iris message to me?_ Nico suddenly wondered. Even the Romans didn’t know about it before the two sides of Olympus met again. So how did a _Valkyrie_ get Iris to send him a message? He knew that in some cases one could use something else than a drachma as payment, but he had a hard time picturing the goddess of rainbows answering the prayers of a warrior of Valhalla. And he hadn’t even told Sam about Iris messages. When they needed to exchange, she usually just sent him a text – yes, Nico had a phone that he used _extensively_. He rarely left the safe limits of Camp when he was in the upper world anyway, and his father’s palace had excellent reception and wifi (Thanatos had asked/bribed/threatened Hermes to install it for his very data sensitive job). And even if he did attract a monster, he could always shadow travel away if he couldn’t slash it down. 

So maybe it was a trap. Wouldn’t surprise him though, the life of a demigod was half getting hurt and half walking into traps. The two were usually correlated. 

But the girl had looked sincere, and proximity to the Feather of Truth had made Nico’s liar radar quite keen. She hadn’t been lying. And she was obviously in trouble, which was surprisingly a good sign when it came to which people he could trust. 

Besides, Nico had never crossed into the Gap, and he had the distinct feeling that it was way bigger than he could imagine. Who could tell how long it might take him to even spot Will’s light? 

And who said he might not get lost on his own and end up forever falling into the endless void, screaming silently with the other millions of souls stuck in the starless world? 

The demigod looked up and glared at Apollo’s statue. 

“Any advice to help me save your son?” 

As expected, the statue didn’t answer. 

With a sigh, Nico swung on his feet and stretched. He had ducks to visit. 

 

  
* 

 

The bronze ducks of Boston’s Public Garden were definitely laughing at him, Nico decided. It was the conclusion he had come up with after twenty minutes of staring at them from his bench and watching kids stopping it front of the sculptures to take pictures. The sun was starting to decline, but there was still a little time before sunset. 

The boy looked around, hoping for a sign of the Valkyrie. So far, the only reactions he had gotten were suspicious-slash-worried looks from adults, curious looks from children and a gang of teenagers trying to sell him white powder that was definitely not what they pretended it to be. Nico had just silently stared at them with his emptiest haunted look, not bulging, and the group had quickly scampered away. Will said that he should never do trick-or-treating, because he might accidentally kill old people from heart attack. Nico didn’t argue – he didn’t like ringing at strangers’ doors anyway. 

A couple walking their dog passed in front of him. They glanced in his direction, discomfort apparent on their faces, and the dog barked at him. Nico bit back the urge the bark louder. He never was an animal person, mostly because animals could smell death and would keep away from him - the only ones who didn’t recoil in his presence were Cerberus, hellhounds, vultures and other scavengers, and the occasional crazy cat. 

“Meow!” 

Nico froze and slowly looked down. A kitten was rubbing its tiny head on his trousers, purring quietly. It meowled a little more, then looked up expectantly at him. 

The demigod stared back blankly. What was it with animals appearing at suspiciously coincidental moments today. 

“Oh, she likes you!” someone chuckled. Nico looked up to see an old lady slowly approaching him, one little step by one little step. Her hand was shaking on her cane, but she didn’t look like she needed help. 

Nico stood up and helped her sit anyway. 

“Thank you young man,” the old woman said. She picked up the kitten and carefully placed it on her lap. The young cat yawned and closed its eyes, purring softly. “Are you here to watch the ducks too?” 

Nico smiled. 

“Sort of, yes. I’m waiting for someone.” 

“How nice, how nice.” The lady looked over to Nico’s bag sitting next to him on the bench. She grinned. “A gift for your special someone, maybe?” 

The demigod yelped and stared at her. He felt his cheeks heat up. 

“Wh-what- n… no, that’s not-” he stuttered helplessly, then gaped for two seconds and finally settled to close his mouth altogether. “No, my- my special someone is quite far away right now,” he eventually whispered. 

Sadness must have seeped into his voice, because the old woman looked at him with concern. 

“Oh, boy, it’s alright. There are times when I am separated from my sweetheart too, but I always feel him close thanks to this.” 

She raised a shaky hand and slipped her ring off her wedding finger, then took Nico’s hand and placed it in his palm. The demigod looked at it curiously. The ring was made of polished silver, with branches and leaves of gold intricately running on its surface. As he slowly turned it around, the meticulously carved vegetal veins caught the warm light of the setting sun perfectly. 

“It’s beautiful,” Nico whispered, and picked it up to give it back to the old woman. 

Except that no one was in front of him. 

The beginning of an annoyed grunt started forming in the back of his throat, wordlessly conveying some vulgarities about mystical beings randomly poking at his life (though that old lady had seemed nice, but who could tell with immortals?). But just as it reached his lips, a scream abruptly cut its momentum and stopped it from ever materializing in the outside world. 

“Nico!” 

The boy turned around, and came face to face with his mysterious Valkyrie. Her face was red from effort and she was panting, but the gleam of battle was shining strong in her eyes. Nico opened his mouth to say something, but the girl gripped him by the shoulders and yanked him up. She was really strong. 

“No time to explain. Hold your breath.” 

Nico almost protested, then reconsidered. He barely had time to grab his bag before he was sucked into a kaleidoscope of lights. As the trees and paved roads started swirling like maelstroms, he heard something zip in the air towards him with a high-pitched noise. 

The next thing he knew, a sharp pain shot from his neck and his limbs went numb. He heard the Valkyrie swear, and felt himself fall. 

Then he smelled the soft scent of a tree and the caress of leaves, and everything went dark. 


	4. Don't trust two demigods with a cellphone

“It’s not working,” Magnus said. “I don’t think we’re getting anywhere like that.” 

Will groaned. 

“No, seriously,” Magnus insisted. “You look ridiculous. If I had my phone I would take a vid and put it on the Internet. Actually why aren’t I doing that? Oh right, it’s because _you dropped my phone._ ” 

“ _I_ didn’t drop your phone,” Will muttered darkly for what must have been the 20th time. 

And yet, it had all started so well. Magnus and him talked and went through the photos on his phone – pictures of him and Annabeth, of Hearth the elf and Blitz the dwarf, two blurry shots of what Magnus explained to be Sam’s hands and elbows (she did not like being taken in photo), a few dogs and cats and random birds, but mostly a lot of food. 

Will’s stomach started rambling, but Magnus’ stayed eerily quiet. They did not try to find an explanation. 

Then they traded stories, played a few games, and took stupid selfies (for posterity). That was the part where it went wrong. 

Magnus decided to try to do the pear tree on the door, and obviously Will thought it was a terrific idea. So there they were, one upside down and face turning red at sight, and the other scouting closer and making a peace sign as he searched for a good angle to take the pic. 

Except that the phone suddenly started vibrating. Will yelped, Magnus made a surprised movement that was materialized as a swift and startled movement of his legs, which ended with his knee bumping hard into a surprised Will’s arm, which was incidentally the arm holding the phone, which led the phone to slip out of the hand attached to said arm, then to fall, then to hit the door, and ultimately to bounce off into the void. 

The fall stopped quite quickly in that weird gravity though, as the phone was now hovering about three meters below them. The screen flashed a “Low battery” sign, stopped vibrating, and turned itself off. 

It was only three meters, but three meters too much. 

For the last ten minutes (probably, who knew anything about time in that starless emptiness), Will had being trying to retrieve the phone. Magnus had tried first, changing his pendant back into his sword. Unfortunately, the sword appeared to be dormant, and couldn’t just zip down and lift his precious back. Will had then suggested making a loop with his belt and hanging it on the hilt of the sword to try to hook the phone up (being careful holding the razor-sharp blade upside-down of course). 

It wasn’t enough. Will dropped the belt too. It still wasn’t enough. 

They looked at each other and extended their arms. Magnus graciously admitted that Will had longer arms. But when Will tried to take hold of Jack, the sword zipped away and almost fell overboard too. Defeated, Will had eventually fished his plastic ruler out, and tried again to turn it into his weapon without much hope. 

With a clang, the ruler extended into a majestuous bow. Will almost kissed it, but stopped himself before he could humiliate himself more in front of Magnus. 

So there he was, graceful son of Apollo lying on his stomach on the former door to his room in Hotel Valhalla, his bow at the end of his extended arm and their belts closed into two consecutive loops like a chain at the other end of the bow. If Magnus even tried to slip his pants off he was going to whack him so hard on the head that he would see double for the rest of his life. 

“I’m almost there,” Will grunted. He shifted a bit closer to the edge and extended his arm to the maximum. The last loop could almost touch the phone, he was so close… 

He emitted a low and long frustrated noise. 

Magnus didn’t answer. After a moment of silence, Will turned back to check what he was doing. 

“Magnus?” 

The boy was looking at him with a thoughtful expression. Will frowned. 

“If you are even thinking about pulling off my pants-” he started with a murder tone. 

Magnus looked offended. 

“Gee, Will, no offense to your bun, but I have been in close quarter with it to last me for the rest of my eternal life.” 

Will _definitely_ didn’t want to talk about that awkward moment of his life. 

“Whatever,” he grumbled. “What were you spacing out for?” 

Magnus shrugged. 

“Well, I was just thinking that maybe we could do some two-men acrobatics and get my phone back.” 

Will frowned. Then felt worry swell in his chest. 

“Are you suggesting that one of us holds the other while he…” he gestured in the direction of the floating device below, and more importantly the vast emptiness beyond. 

Magnus nodded. Will made a strangled noise. 

“Are you crazy? You told me that the only thing keeping us from falling for the rest of eternity out there was that door, and you want to leave the door now?” 

The son of Frey flinched back under the other’s angry tone and held up his hands in the universal “calm the fuck down” sign. 

“Hey, I hanged from your butt for like 15 minutes before you came back to your wits before. I’m sure you can hold me by my feet for like 30 seconds. Just enough to grab my phone and pull me back up.” 

“That’s a terrible idea.” 

“You have a better one?” 

Will scowled and pushed himself back up, pulling their possessions back on the door. 

“Yeah, we could hang my bow and the belts at the hilt of your sword. It should be more than enough to hook that damn thing back.” 

Magnus shook his head. 

“You realize that a wrong swing and you can kiss goodbye to your bow and your belt?” 

“Do you prefer slipping and falling forever in that darkness?” 

Magnus opened his mouth to bite a lashing retort back, but instead froze and gaped a little. Will’s glow had gradually grown stronger as they were arguing, and the other boy was now almost too bright to look at. It calmed him down a few notches. 

“Uh, Will, maybe you should-” he started, but was cut in mid-sentence as a war cry suddenly filled the emptiness. Both boys turned around, adrenaline immediately rushing through their veins and weapons swiftly readied in their hands and trousers loose around their waists. 

In the distance, they could see half a dozen torches in what appeared to be a combat formation. The torches were heading in their direction. Fast. 

“Crap, Valkyries, and not the friendly ones I think,” Magnus cursed, then turned toward the Greek demigod, at least as much as he could without ending blind. “Turn off that light immediately!” 

Will closed his eyes and focused. When he opened them again, he was still glowing, stronger than ever. 

“I- I can’t-” 

“What?” 

The lights in the distance were still approaching, and Will could see metal – chainmail, reigns, shields, swords, helmets – shining. Panic started swelling in his chest. His heartbeat picked up a rhyme that was way too high, and his hands clammed with sweat. If he went dark now maybe the Valkyries would get disoriented and fly past them. But why couldn’t he turn off the li- 

“Well,” Magnus sighed next to him, cutting Will’s distressed train of thoughts. He sounded calm and determined. “We are not going down without a fight, right?” 

The word “fight” had an immediate effect on Will. Something clicked in his head, and his breathing evened, all his muscles relaxing. 

He might primarily be a medic, but he knew more than a thing or two about fighting too. And he was an excellent archer. He weighted his bow in his hand, and slowly raised it in an aiming position. As he wished for it, a white arrow appeared, perfectly notched on the arc. 

The demigods weren’t going to engage, but it should dissuade the Valkyries from coming too close. 

“Of course,” Will replied. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Magnus slightly lift his sword, ready to strike if needed. 

“Show me what a Greek can do,” the son of Frey smirked. 

“If you show me what a Norse is capable of,” the head of Cabin Apollo replied. 

In front of them, the group of six Valkyries came into sight. Two of them were also carrying bows, and they swiftly aimed two arrows at the demigods. The others drew their weapons. 

As the Valkyries stretched out to surround them, Will and Magnus glanced at each other, a silent understanding passing between them. 

The Valkyries weren’t there to discuss. 

And it was going to be an ugly fight. 

 

  
* 

 

There was a lot of light, and then there was darkness, and then there was water. A lot of water. (Percy would have been so happy, Nico distantly mused.) 

The spot where the unidentified projectile had hit his neck was still pulsing, sending waves after waves of sharp pain through his metabolism like poison. He had no idea what it was, but his body obviously didn’t like it and arched in desperate attempts to get rid of it. 

Was he dying? Anyone would probably think so, but Nico was familiar (way too familiar, according to many) with death, and he knew that it differed from simple agonizing pain. 

What he felt lacked the despair and sweet taste of a last breath. 

Just as the pulsing seemed to subside a little, his body suddenly gasped for air, which was a stupid reaction since he appeared to be underwater and did not have any ability to breathe fluids. Nevertheless, his mouth opened against his reason’s belated protests, and immediately after, his lungs felt like they just set themselves on fire. 

Nevermind what he was thinking earlier. He was dying. 

Before his thoughts could spiral any further down, Nico was suddenly and very violently yanked out of the water, and made a painful stomach-landing on what appeared to be tiles. Immediately after and before the new pain could register, his body arched back and his lungs tried to cough out the equivalent of a small pond, leaving the boy without much energy. He flopped down again on his belly, limp. 

“Sorry for that,” someone said behind him. Nico summoned the force to rearrange himself to lay on his side, so he could look at the room. He could only see a small part of it, most of his vision field being obstructed by what looked like a small wall, but he could tell by the light and the echo that the place was probably huge. 

The Valkyrie was crouched next to him, looking worried. Her commando clothes were soaked and looked heavy on her, but she had at least taken off the chainmail coat. She had untied her ponytail, leaving her long dark hair to flow freely in wet strands on her face. 

Nico had many questions. 

“Uh,” he summed them up, a particularly vicious wave of pain shooting through his body. “Ow,” he added. 

The Valkyrie scouted a bit closer, and her hand left Nico’s vision field. His instincts told him to wiggle away, but his body wasn’t very responsive. With a pang of worry, he noticed that his sword wasn’t at his side anymore. 

A sting ran up his nerves as something sharp left his neck. Almost immediately, the pain withdrew a few notches. Nico tried to sit up, but utterly failed and slipped back with a wet noise. 

“Are you okay?” the girl inquired, worried. 

Nico glared at her in disbelief. She blushed, embarrassed. 

“I’m sorry, I think that… needle… was aimed at me. But you don’t look like you are dying, so I guess it’s a good sign?” 

She obviously meant well (a bit like when Hazel hovered awkwardly around him when he was upset), but Nico’s head felt like the entirely of Cabin Ares was roaring like an obscure group of mad killers eagerly hitting their swords against their shields between his two ears. His patience ran very thin. 

“Explain,” he managed to demand in a hoarse voice. The Valkyrie’s eyes troubled. 

“I, hum,” she started, then closed her mouth and seemed to take a decision. “I’ll tell you on our way, we don’t have much time.” 

Nico wanted to protest that he couldn’t move, but he was cut short by a yap escaping his mouth. The Valkyrie very unceremoniously slipped her shoulder under his stomach and lifted him. He might have been ten good centimetres taller than her and weighing down with wet clothes, but the girl didn’t seem to have any trouble carrying him like a potato bag. 

“You’re very light,” she said, surprised. 

Nico grumbled. The Valkyrie retrieved his bag and slipped it on her other shoulder, then started moving. 

Nico lifted his head and finally got an occasion to get a good look at the room. 

_Oh, shoot,_ he thought. 

He had never been to that particular room, but the golden plate on the wall in front of him was very explicit. 

They were in Valhalla’s spa room. 

 

  
* 

 

“My name is May,” the Valkyrie said. They had left the spa room and were now treading carefully in the seemingly desert corridors of the hotel. Or more accurately, May was treading carefully while Nico was just trying to keep his limbs in check so they didn’t hit walls and knock out precious flower pots and the various deadly weapons hung everywhere. He still wasn’t sure what happened to his sword, but if it had been held in the mortal world by Valhalla’s customs duty, then he hoped that a hellhound had retrieved it and brought it back to the palace. Preferably without chewing on it or swallowing it altogether, as Mrs O’Leary had once done. Getting his sword out had been a bit messy. 

“Nice to meet you,” Nico replied. His mouth felt less like he was chewing on mud than before, and the pain had gone down to a level he could easily overlook. His body was still non-functional though, and it started really worrying him. With a grunt, he forced his head to move a little and glanced around. The corridors were eerily silent, and his instincts told him that it was very wrong. 

“Where is everyone?” 

“Many of them got sucked into Ginnungagap after your friends, and the others are probably scouting the Nine Worlds for us.” She rolled her shoulders a little, then readjusted Nico’s weight before he slipped down. “The Valkyries are out there to fish back the einherjar that got lost in the Gap.” 

_Uh, okay_ , was the boy’s first thought, a bit distracted by the movements and the discomfort of his position. Then the meaning of May’s words caught up to his brain. 

He froze. _Wait wait wait-_

“Do you mean there are Valkyries currently scouting the Gap? Where Will and Magnus are? And with Will glowing like a solar lighthouse?” 

He hadn’t meant for his voice to rise to such high notes, but his words had ended in a shriek and his heart had decided to try a sprint. He had thought that Will would be safe in Ginnungagap, but if the Valkyries were deployed there- 

“That’s why I’m walking fast,” May muttered darkly. Nico couldn’t see her face, his head being behind her back and all, but he could feel the tension in her body. 

A flock of questions came back swirling in his mind. 

_Why are you doing this? Why do you look familiar? Where are we going? How did you send me an Iris message?_

“Why the spa?” he asked instead. 

May hummed softly. 

“I wasn’t aiming at the spa in particular,” she answered. “I’m not very good at the whole ‘travelling between Worlds’ thing yet, so I wished us to land above a mass of water. So we wouldn’t crash on the cold hard ground, you know.” 

Nico understood. He thought about his next question, but before he could decide on one May stopped abruptly. She moved her arm that wasn’t keeping the demigod from tumbling down like a helpless anorexic doll, and Nico’s bag lightly bumped in the side of his head. As he bumped back with an annoyed grunt, his eyes suddenly fell on his hands. The silver and gold ring the old lady had given him had somehow found its way to his right ring finger. Nico studied it distantly, as it shined softly under the artificial light of the corridors. Maybe he should have wondered about who that old woman really was and what that gift meant, but he had a hard time summoning the energy to. 

Receiving things from disguised deities wasn’t that much of a rare occurrence anyway. 

May stepped forward again, and the spears ornamenting the elevators’ doors closed in front of Nico’s nose. He heard a beep, and the cage initiated its descent. 

“Where are we going?” 

May carefully turned around to face the door, leaving Nico to stare at the mirror at the back of the cage. He looked awful. But on the bright side, Will would surely want to nurse him for a few days at the sight of his natural Frankenstein monster complexion. The thought made his chest buzz with warmth. 

“Floor 19 has been condemned, because of the hole to Ginnungagap.” 

“That’s where we’re going,” Nico guessed. 

“Yeah.” 

The elevator softly hummed in the silence. 

“How did you send me an Iris message?” 

May made a noise and tensed slightly. 

“Someone gave me a tip.” 

“Who?” Nico frowned. He was the first to act shadowy and felt like he couldn’t really blame others to do so as well, but he needed to know he could trust May to a certain degree – he really wasn’t in the physical capacity to fight back or escape if the Valkyrie suddenly decided that she wanted to hurt him. 

Him or Will. 

What even were her motives to help? 

“I know you are worried, Nico, but I swear to you I am on your side.” 

“How do I know that?” 

“I can swear on the River Styx, if you want.” 

Nico froze. He slowly flexed his fingers, testing how responsive his body was. Control over it was gradually coming back, but he still couldn’t do much. 

“You seem very knowledgeable on Greek culture, for a Valkyrie,” he said carefully. 

“And you are very knowledgeable on a lot of things outside of your own pantheon, Child of Death.” 

Nico tensed. It was the second time someone called him like that – first, an Egyptian god, and then a warrior of Valhalla. It couldn’t be a coincidence. 

“Who are you, really?” 

Before he could get an answer, the elevator came to a stop. “Floor 19”, a recorded voice announced. 

“Hold tight,” May said. 

Nico couldn’t do much, but he weakly grabbed a strap of his bag swinging next to his face. 

The doors opened, and a hurricane roared inside the elevator. 

 

  
* 

 

“Magnus Chase, Will Solace, surrender and we will show mercy.” 

The leader of the Valkyries was hovering half a dozen meters away from them, her battle axe resting by her side but ready to strike at a moment’s notice. Will couldn’t clearly see her face under the heavy helmet, but he was fairly certain it was the red-haired ass grabbing college girl. She looked quite different now. A bit less flirtatious and a whole lot more homicidal. 

The demigods glanced at each other. 

“No thanks,” Magnus said. “No offense, but last time you lot went after me you were very wrong.” 

The Valkyrie scowled. Her horse reared up and everyone took a firmer grip on their weapons. The tension went up a notch. 

“The thanes do not wish you harm,” Red-haired continued, dismissing Magnus’ intervention. She looked in Will’s direction. “We don’t want another war with the Vanir, though the thanes are confused over where you got your… abilities.” She made a vague gesture at Will, her metal gauntlets catching the reddish light of her torch like a blood-stained blade. 

Will didn’t reply, and stretched the string of his bow furthermore. The Valkyrie’s features tensed, then relaxed as if she was resigned to what she had to do. 

“We will use force if necessary,” she warned. 

“Come at me bro,” Magnus muttered back, his body shifting into full combat pose. 

Then, several things happened almost at the same time. 

First, one of the Valkyries released her arrow, piercing though Magnus’ right calf. The boy screamed in pain, and went down on one knee. 

Hearing that, Will also fired, shooting his arrow straight at the red-haired warrior. She raised her shield, and half of the arrow went through it, the tip stopping just before piercing the exposed space between her body armour and the spaulder. She stared at it for a split second. That boy either had a crap ton of luck, or had the aim of an elf. She suspected the second option to be true. 

Her lips curled up in a mad and bloodthirsty grin. The boy hadn’t shot to kill, and he was going to regret that mistake. She raised her axe, all her “We don’t want to hurt you” speech flying out into the endless void. 

“Charge!” she roared, and her group echoed her scream, launching their steeds towards the floating door and its two occupants. One of them was wounded and the other didn’t seem to have any close combat weapon (though she had seen what he could do with that bow and sheer brutal force). The Valkyrie could already smell victory. 

She brandished her axe with a war cry, and swung it towards Will’s head. He would recover soon enough from decapitation anyway (maybe). She prepared for the impact and the wet sound of torn flesh and cracked bones. 

She was disappointed. 

Instead, her axe didn’t meet any resistance, and she thought for a moment that the boy had dodged her blow. But then she took a look again, and almost dropped her weapon and jaw. 

Where her target was standing just a second ago, an empty darkness was now facing her silently. The two blondes had completely disappeared, not leaving a single trace behind them. 

“What the Helheim?” she heard one of her warriors whisper in a haunted voice. They all stop hastily before colliding into each other and started squinting, but there obviously was nothing there anymore. The Valkyrie captain frowned and leaned closer. They couldn’t have disappeared just like that, maybe it was- 

“Help!” someone suddenly called from somewhere above. All the Valkyries turned their heads at the same time. An einherji shot past them with a scream, frenetically waving his arms and legs, his continuous scream fading rapidly as he kept falling at an alarming speed. 

The captain bit her lower lip. Her bloodthirst protested vehemently against the decision forming in her head, but as fun as slicing people down was, she was the Captain of the Valkyries before all. 

She had a duty towards Valhalla and the einherjar. 

“We’ll look for them later,” she groaned, turning her horse around, then gave a sharp kick in its flank. “Let’s go get that idiot!” 

 

  
* 

 

Will yelped as the axe swung above his head, its razor-sharp blade shortening some of his hair by a few millimetres. He landed painfully on his butt, Magnus’ hand still firmly grabbing the handful of shirt he had used to pull him down, and incidentally saving his head from winning a free trip away from the rest of his body. 

He mentally noted to thank him if they survived that fight, but his battle-trained instincts told him not to look away from the enemies. He was already half standing up, ready for the next assault, when he noticed that something was very wrong. 

A think black veil seemed to have fallen around them. Beyond it, the Valkyries had all stopped and were looking at them with shocked eyes. 

Or rather, they were looking somewhere next to them or past them, like they couldn’t focus. Like they couldn’t _see_ them. The captain leaned a bit closer, scowling, and started stretching out her arm, as if she wanted to poke the veil. But before she could, someone fell past them screaming, and the Valkyries turned away to go after them. 

Will didn’t dare to move before they had disappeared in the distance. What just happened? 

“Ow.” 

He turned around to find Magnus sitting behind him, face twisted in pain and hand pressed against his calf, blood soaking through his jeans and seeping through his fingers. He held the red-tainted arrow in his other hand, and his sword seemed to have changed back to its pendant form. 

Will’s healer instincts took over. He changed his bow back to his school ruler and slid it into his pocket, then crawled to the other boy’s side. 

“Let me take a look.” 

Magnus squinted at him and shook his head. 

“It’s okay man, I’ll be fine in a minute.” 

Indeed, his sweaty and pale cheeks were already taking on a healthier pink colour again. The trickles of blood slimmed down. They didn’t completely stop, though. 

“What happened?” he asked. 

Will didn’t have an answer. He looked around. The black veil was still in place. With the Valkyries gone, there was only darkness to be seen. 

Except… 

“Someone is coming,” he said, squinting at the growing red light in the distance. Magnus growled painfully as he tried to stand up. 

“Come on, don’t tell me they are already back,” he whined. “I’m not ready to take another arrow in the leg.” 

Will stepped to the edge of the door, which didn’t change much because it was literally fifty centimetres away. It was already hard to see, and the strange veil didn’t improve it. He didn’t try touching it. 

“No, I think it’s only one person. They’re coming fast.” 

Magnus stumbled next to him. 

“Mmh. Aren’t we, like, invisible though?” 

_Oh._

Just as the two demigods looked at each other with a new kind of horror, voices reached their ears. 

More accurately, someone was screaming. 

Then things happened very quickly. 

Just as Will discerned the shape of a horse, one rider and another form thrown across the back of the mount, his brain registered the screams. And more importantly, whose person the voice belonged to. 

“SLOW DOWN,” he heard Nico yell. “THERE ARE RIGHT H—” 

Will’s heart made a happy loop, and then a horse crashed into his chest. 


	5. The (not) perks of having a glowing butt

“ _Love can make you fly_ ” had never been truer. In fact, the force of the impact completely ejected Will out of the safety of the door, right into the endless void. He just registered Magnus ducking to the side before the merciless strange gravity of the Gap claimed him and he started to fall. 

He was torn between screaming _“I’m so happy to see you Nico!”_ and _“Help!”_

He settled for something more simple. 

“AAAAAAAH!” Will yelled in a high-pitched voice. 

But just as his scream had reached a good momentum, he suddenly hit something soft, like a net. He stopped falling. 

“… Aaaah?” the boy felt compelled to finish, but in a much quieter way. 

He didn’t dare to move. Above him, he could see the red light slowly coming down his way. Then the horse and its riders came into view. 

A goofy smile spread on his lips as Nico’s face appeared. The son of Hades was weirdly lying across the back of the horse, his head and a palm turned into Will’s direction, but all the rest of his body looked completely limp. His features were strained with exhaustion and the dim red light made his eyebags appear even worse than usual. Will’s smile faltered a bit, but Nico smirked weakly at him and he immediately felt a little relieved. 

“Hello Will,” the other rider called. The demigod tore his gaze away from his boyfriend and looked at her. He gasped. 

“May! What are you doing here?” 

“Long story,” the young Valkyrie replied with a smile. “Let’s get you up first.” 

 

  
* 

 

“Nico, Magnus. Magnus, Nico.” 

The son of Frey waved at him with a smile. Nico nodded in return. He couldn’t do much more, even though he felt his forces coming back gradually. 

“Annabeth told me about you,” he said. Magnus’ grin widened. He pointed at Will with his thumb. 

“Your boyfriend told me about you,” he replied. “He mostly told me how much he loves you and wants your babies.” 

Will made a strangled noise that Nico found adorable. He would have felt flustered, but he was so tired that he had reached a state of peaceful levitation over his own body and feelings. Besides, Will’s arms were warm and the light emanating from his skin had enveloped him in a comfortable healing cocoon. All he wanted was to close his eyes and take a nap. 

But that was not an option. 

“The veil of shadows will keep us safe for now, but we need to get out and contact Sam,” he said. 

Magnus fidgeted with his freshly recovered phone. He tried to restart it several times, but the screen stayed stubbornly dark. In despair, he hit it against his forehead like it could somehow connect with the electricity surging through his brain – which obviously failed and left a fresh red mark on his pale skin. No one said he was the brightest bulb out there. 

“I’m not sure I still have batteries,” he whimpered, dejected. He tapped again on the screen, just in case. “Nope. Definitely dead. Does no one else have her number?” 

Will lightly bumped his chin on Nico’s head in a questioning way, but the smaller boy just shook his head and reached inside his pockets, wiggling a bit so he wouldn’t elbow his boyfriend in the stomach. Will was grateful. He had learned through many painful accidents that the son of Hades had very sharp bones – or rather, he just didn’t have any fat on them to smooth the impact. It was a topic of constant worry in Will’s mind. 

“I did, but I doubt my phone is going to restart. Like, ever,” Nico sighed, the two separate parts of what used to be his best companion and only joy of many endless and boring meetings resting sadly in his palm. He hadn’t been able to check so far, but he had heard a crack that didn’t sound like bones when he had landed on the floor of Valhalla, then had felt through the fabric on his pants that his phone had taken up an unnatural geometry that was only worsening with every bump. 

Some part of him still wistfully hoped that Leo would be able to salvage it. Well, he had fixed worse things than a phone in two parts, right? 

“Wow, sorry man,” Magnus commented, a genuine pained look on his face. He slightly clenched his own phone in his hand, almost protectively. “It looked expensive.” 

Nico hummed. “Not really. You have no idea how many people die with their phones on them and then use it as payment for Charon. There’s a giant heap of them somewhere down in Asphodel.” 

Magnus’ face shut like a curtain and he blinked at him in disbelief. 

“This is so unfair.” 

Nico shrugged. 

“Well, I guess that I could snatch a couple of tablets for you if you want.” He looked up at Will and smirked. “Consider it as a thank you for keeping that guy’s head on his shoulders.” 

Magnus’ upset expression immediately shifted into a warmer one, and his eyes and mouth took the shape of a capital O. After a couple of seconds, he closed his eyes solemnly and put one hand on his chest. 

“I love you so much, man,” he declared. Instantly after, an unhappy and offended groan answered him. 

“Hey,” Will protested with a frown, slightly leaning forward and tightening his hold on his boyfriend. In front of him, Magnus grinned and shrugged with an air of complete innocence, which made Will scowl deepen. But before he could add anything more to his articulate and heavily elaborated speech, Nico softly tapped on his arm to get his attention. 

The boy pointed in front of him, past Magnus and at a dot in the distance. As it grew and took the shape of a rider, he flicked his wrist and the dark veil opened like a delicate curtain blown by a breeze. The ripples of the veil caught Will’s glow as it shifted, briefly making the shadows look like they shone in an otherworldly light. An impossible and paradoxical light. 

Will gaped slightly at the strange and mesmerizing beauty of the scenery, his heart suddenly feeling lighter and a shiver running down his spine – that was, until May made a startled scream, pulled too strongly on her reins, veered at an alarming speed and slid under the door like the protagonist of an action movie passing under a train on a motorcycle. After a couple of seconds of intense flying horse braking, she made a loop and flew back to them, her face red and eyes aghast. The small movements of her lips indicated that her brain expressed the intention of speaking, but no sound came out. 

“Hey?” she eventually managed, voice more confused than interrogative. She then frowned a little and blinked to refocus. “Hey.” 

“Hey,” Nico replied. “How’s our escape route doing?” 

May’s features and shoulders slumped down, and she looked past them. 

“The whole squad is patrolling out there, and some are guarding the passage to Valhalla. Both of the passages.” 

“Can’t you take us to Midgard though? Like, with Valkyrie Airways?” Magnus ventured. 

A guilty expression fell on May’s face. 

“I’m not good enough at travelling between the worlds to take three passengers with me.” She paused, and her eyes troubled. She looked at Nico. “But can’t you do that too?” 

Nico tensed, and almost didn’t feel how his boyfriend had gone rigid as well. Before he could say anything, he felt a low rumble pass through Will’s chest, against his back. 

“How do you know about shadow travelling?” the son of Apollo asked, his voice eerily quiet and a hint of threat in it. Nico winced at his unusual tone. Despite his repetitive reassurances that he was being careful, he knew that the whole topic of shadow travelling was always a sensitive subject for Will – and the latter was painfully aware of that. 

Will had spent long nights trying to figure out why. 

It wasn’t just because he was sometimes (often) a bit overprotective about Nico. It was more irrational than that – it was that tearing feeling that always ripped through his guts whenever he looked at Nico melting into the darkness and vanishing, gone to places he couldn’t reach and never sure whether the shadows would ever release him again. He always had to bite back to urge to scream and grab the darkness and demand for it to spit the smaller boy out, even though he knew that it was impossible and didn’t make sense. 

Nico had taken him on a trip once – a short one, from one side of camp to the other. The shadows there were warm and smooth, like the peaceful flow of a gentle river inhabited by the murmurs of playful dryads and sleepy campers. And yet, Will had heard them, the laments of lost souls moaning throughout eternity because it was the only things they knew how to do anymore. 

And even more than the soul-wrenching despair, he had felt the coldness seeping from the edge of their path; he had felt the grips of the damned trying to reach for them, just there, just beneath the surface. 

“Uh oh, he’s doing the thing again.” 

Magnus’ worried voice cut right through Will’s tormented thoughts, and he suddenly re-emerged in the present. 

The present was very bright. 

Very, extremely bright. 

“This is how the Valkyries found us last time,” the son of Frey continued, urgency seeping in his voice. He stared at Nico, who quickly got the message and raised a hand. Tendrils of shadows flew past Will’s light, extending the veil further to engulf May and her horse in their cocoon. 

_Oh, crap_ , Will thought, as a few red lights appeared in the distance. He had the feeling red dots were going to haunt his dreams for the rest of his afterlife, if souls even needed to sleep. _Oh crap, oh crap._

A cold sweat broke on his back, and he forced himself to focus on his heartbeat and keep it from skyrocketing to Mars. The intensity of his glow seemed to be linked to his emotions, growing brighter proportionally to his distress. It could be a fancy power if he was battling cave monsters or vampires, but right now-- 

“Magnus, give me your hand! And May, grab Magnus!” 

It took Will two seconds to register what he had just heard, and one second more for his eyes and mouth to take the proper shape and size in reaction. He didn’t get the last second he needed to start saying something, as Magnus and May didn’t need that much time to react and reached for Nico’s open palm and Magnus’ arm respectively. His other hand was holding Will’s firmly. 

“Hold tight,” Nico whispered. 

Barely a breath later, they were all falling from the door after Nico, all three screams melting together in a disharmonious cacophony of scared teenagers that would have made Apollo weep. 

Funnily enough, Will still heard the horse neighing in surprise as its mistress brutally slipped from the saddle and disappeared. 

Before he was completely engulfed in darkness, Will had a strange thought about psychological therapy for pegasi and other magical horses. 

 

  
* 

 

The shadows were empty. 

Somewhere far far away, Will could hear the distant laments of hopeless ghosts; but they faded so quickly that he wasn’t even sure he had heard them right. They were like echoes in a world without mountains, muffled steps in a land without life. Ephemeral, impossible, and gone before they could leave a trace to witness. 

And when the ripples disappeared, there was only silence left. 

A cold and suffocating silence reverberating through the darkness, snuffing out his light like a candle in a storm. 

Then a pressure around his hand. Friendly. Warm. 

The guess of a smile, invisible and close. 

And for the first time ever, Nico’s hand felt warmer than Will’s against his skin. 

 

  
* 

 

The landing was - in the timey impossibility to find a better word - painful. 

Will was brutally projected out of the shade of a tree and barely avoided crashing into the neighbouring tree’s massive trunk, a scream building rapidly in his throat. As he shot past it and landed in a messy roll on a well-maintained lawn, he heard a loud thump followed by a painful groan, then the thud of a body hitting the ground. 

_Ow,_ Will thought out of sympathy. 

Apparently, Magnus hadn’t been as lucky as him. Will just hoped no dryad inhabited the tree – he _really_ didn’t want to face an angry nature spirit again, not after one had violently whacked him on the head with a branch because the satyr she was chasing had very conveniently dodged the attack just behind him. The boy had seen things double for a few minutes (and then almost passed out when Argus picked him up to carry him to the infirmary. Have you ever seen two hundred eyes fixed on you? Don’t judge him.) 

As Will tried to painfully sit up, with lots of groans and swearing, he heard a body slide on the ground, then come to a stop abruptly. He turned his head. 

“Ouch,” May said. She was lying on her back, her right arm and leg half on the seat on the bench that had stopped her momentum. She didn’t seem very inclined to move anymore. Will could relate to that. His nervous system was a bit too much alive for a dead man. 

He eventually managed to sit up on his butt, head still spinning and a vague dizziness blurring his mind. He rubbed his eyes, blinked, then pinched his cheeks. He didn’t know why he thought that adding more pain to pain would lead him to anything, but it sort of worked anyway. 

Will looked around again, his sight more focused and the fog in his head clearing up. 

A couple of meters behind him, Magnus was lying upside down and trying to figure out the meaning of life (afterlife?), eyes vague and staring at the thick canopy. His arms were sprawled at each side of his head and one of his legs was still crooked up the trunk from which he had slid down. 

And beyond him… 

Will’s heart missed a beat. 

“Nico!” he called, and almost tripped on his own feet as he tried to stand up. He stumbled back to where they had come from, and fell on his knees without caring for the skin that scratched off on the small branches on the ground. 

He carefully reached for the pale arm seemingly emerging from the shadow like a disturbingly too realistic prop from a horror movie, and pulled on it. It didn’t bulge. 

“Don’t you dare-” Will grinded between his teeth. He gave a sharp pull again, but the shadow still refused to let go. A cold sweat formed on his back, and his heart clenched in his chest. Something started growing rapidly in his guts, and he knew too well what it was. His throat tightened. 

_Okay, Will, don’t panic,_ he told himself – or was it the maybe Muse in his head? _You are a son of Apollo. You don’t fear shadows._

_(Except that I do,_ another voice whispered. _)_

Will shook his head and clenched his fists angrily, almost drawing blood. He held his breath for a moment, forcing his heart to calm down. Then opened his eyes again, and extended a hand over the darkness. 

Will took a deep breath, thought about the sun and his father’s flying chariot, and channelled all his power along his arm. As a bright flash illuminated his surroundings, he pulled with everything he had with his other hand. In the back of his mind, he incoherently prayed that he wasn’t going to end with a detached arm as sole souvenir of his boyfriend. 

Smoothly, Nico slid out of the chased away shadows, half-flying, and landed loudly on Will. Both boys tumbled down on the ground. 

As he landed on his back again, his boyfriend’s (feather) weight on him, Will felt a nervous laugh climb up his throat. Soon, he hiccupped an inhumane noise, then another, and the noises just seemed to be unable to stop. His lips slowly spread into a relieved smile. 

Then Nico’s head lolled sideways, and the small boy slumped down on the grass with a thud. 

Every organ in Will’s body seemed to freeze. A second passed. 

Then they all restarted at the same time, and Will was on his knees again, a shaking arm under Nico’s body and his other hand frenetically looking for a pulse. 

“Stay with me, Nico,” Will pleaded, reaching for the artery on the smaller boy’s neck. Silence. 

Then a beat, so weak that he almost missed it. Not daring to move a muscle, he waited for another one – a confirmation that he hadn’t dreamed it, that Nico was- 

Beat. 

A crushing relief immediately washed through Will’s body, making all the tension go for a blissful moment. Then his brain kicked into full emergency mode again. Nico was injured. He was a medic. He knew the drill, he could save him. 

At least, that was what Will kept repeating in his head to keep the looming despair away. 

He looked down at his boyfriend, doing his best to adjust the doctor goggles on his eyes. His heart sank at the sight in from of him. That was… 

Nico’s skin had turned an unhealthy greyish-greenish colour that was already extremely worrying by itself; but _that_ seemed like a piece of cake next to the other phenomenon occurring in front of his eyes. Will gulped with difficulty. 

He could only stare in horror as parts of Nico’s body randomly flickered in and out of existence. Furthermore, he wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt like the shades of the surrounding trees had grown bigger, like long wicked fingers converging towards them – like black serpents crawling towards their prey to swallow it whole into the darkness. 

_No._

_No no no._

“Babe,” he called, knowing very well that Nico hated being called babe. Maybe if he insulted him, his boyfriend would wake up to punch him? Will would gladly take any number of punches and kicks right now, if it meant… 

“Stay with me.” 

A tremor punctuated his whisper. Will bit his lips. 

He could only do that much to keep his voice from breaking. What could he do? His healing glow had faded and he was barely holding up the physical setback of his flashing trick from earlier. Whatever miracle had kept him going in the Gap obviously didn’t work here anymore. 

He didn’t even know where _here_ was. He just knew that it was a park, somewhere on Earth, probab- 

“Urf.” 

Will almost snapped his neck looking back at Nico’s face. The boy’s brows were furrowed, and his body had tensed up. He obviously was in pain. 

_Good._ Pain was good. Pain meant that he was alive and functioning. 

“Nico,” Will whispered, and brushed his cheek. He reached for his pulse again. 

Beat. Beat. Beat. 

Will was almost scared to believe what was happening. 

He hadn’t done anything. Nico was on the verge of disappearing into thin air, and Will had only been able to look at him, powerless. And now- 

Now, Nico’s cheeks were slowly turning back into their usual too pale complexion, and his whole body felt more opaque than before, more material and anchored in reality. 

It was a miracle. Will could _feel_ the hand of a deity behind it, and beyond the flooding gratitude he felt, it also terrified him. Because if he knew one thing, it was that miracles never came without a price. 

“Nngh,” Nico moaned, and Will’s dark thoughts flew out the window, immediately replaced by complete focus on his boyfriend. The son of Hades’ face crunched up in pain, then relaxed again. The wrinkles on his forehead smoothed down into a peaceful expression. 

Gradually, Nico’s intermittent ghost transformation spaced out, until the moment Will felt confident enough to reach for his hand without fearing that he would go right through it. 

Nico’s hand was warm. 

Nico’s hand was never warm. 

Will slowly opened his fingers, and stared at the ring glowing softly on the boy’s finger. The detailed leaves running around it were carefully outlined by the light filtering from the multiple veins, making the carvings look like delicate furrows of liquid gold. 

Like golden blood. 

Nico coughed. 

“Wow wow wow, easy there cowboy,” Will said, letting go of his hand. He wrapped an arm behind his back and carefully held him up into a more or less sitting position. Nico coughed a couple more times, his whole body arching as if he wanted to spit all his insides out, then went limp again and leaned against Will’s arms. 

“Hey,” he breathed. His eyes were closed, but he wiggled a bit closer and nudged his nose against Will’s neck. 

The blond boy gaped for a moment, then felt his lips slowly curl up into a smile. 

“Hey,” he replied, and pressed a kiss on Nico’s forehead. His body temperature seemed normal up there. 

A soft hum answered him. Then the only thing he could hear were the even and deep breaths and occasional whistling noises Nico always made when he was sleeping. 

As the smaller boy’s chest softly heaved up and down, following the regular rhythm of his dreams, Will carefully held up his hand again. 

The ring had stopped glowing, going back to a regular though meticulously crafted piece of jewellery. 

 

  
* 

 

They were back in a hotel, though far less luxurious than Valhalla. Actually, it was rather a youth hostel, located in what they had eventually identified as Manhattan, hopefully out of reach of their pursuers. At least, enough for them to rest and think about their next move. 

Will carefully settled Nico on one of the beds, which were all empty because they had paid extra money to buy the whole room. He then slipped Nico’s credit card (KING MINOS COUNSELLING – BANK & INSURANCES) back into his wallet along his fake ID and a plane ticket for Egypt (Will wasn’t sure he wanted to ask). 

The boy was fairly sure there wasn’t any bank named after Minos. He tilted his head, and tried to picture a flow of money sluggishly crawling out of the Underworld’s vaults into the circuits of mortal finances. Could gods just produce money like that? How did it work? Did it influence the evolution of stock exchange? Or did they use their knowledge of the future to buy shares at their lowest and sell them at their peak? 

So many questions and so few answers. 

Nico made a little whistling noise, and lazily turned on his side and slipped his legs close to his chest in a foetal position. His hand clutched the sheet for a moment, then relaxed and rested quietly by his face. A soft snoring (that actually sounded like a purr) emanated from his bundled up form. 

“Man, there’s so much sugar spitting out of you that I might die of diabetes.” 

Will didn’t even want to grace Magnus’ snarky intervention with a reaction. But he did anyway, because ignoring people was rude. Also, no one insulted sugar and sweets and generally any kind of desserts in front of him. Not without consequences. Cabin Apollo had learned it the hard way. 

“Fight me,” Will answered, and flicked Magnus’ forehead in an inhumanely quick movement. The son of Frey yapped in surprise and jumped back, hit a bed in the crook of the knee, and flopped down on the mattress quite ungracefully. Served him right. 

Magnus took his defeat with dignity, and stayed sprawled on the bed. He grabbed the pillow behind his head and hugged it on his chest, then turned sideways to face Will. His lips parted, as if to say something, but then his eyes suddenly slipped away and looked past the son of Apollo. The boy frowned. 

“Who is May talking to?” he asked, making a sharp movement towards something behind Will with his chin. 

Will turned back and looked out the window. The glass was stained and in dire need of a wash, but he could still discern the Valkyrie’s figure outside on the pavement. She was obviously talking to someone, but that person was standing behind a flight of stairs that completely hid them. 

Will frowned. If that didn’t scream _Warning! Suspicious behaviour!_ , he didn’t know what did. But then, he still felt compelled to leave May the benefit of the doubt. She hadn’t done anything that hadn’t been to help them so far – even though there were things about her that he couldn’t explain. How she had resisted Silena’s charmspeak. How she knew about shadow travelling. Why she generally gave out that same vibe Nico did, when he obviously knew something and refused to talk. 

An uncomfortable knot wrung inside Will’s chest. 

Nakamura. 

But it was impossible. A Greek demigoddess couldn’t be a Valkyrie. _Right?_

“Hey, she’s coming back.” 

Will turned back to see Magnus roll out of bed, his pillow tucked under his arm. The son of Apollo glanced at it and raised an interrogative eyebrow. 

“I’m taking it,” Magnus announced, almost defensively. 

“You can’t.” 

“Who says so.” 

“The law.” 

“The law only applies to living people and I’m dead.” 

Will didn’t find an argument against that. 

“Stealing is bad,” he still countered, because he wanted the last word and he did believe that stealing was bad, despite the constant lobbying of Cabin Hermes. Magnus just shrugged and hugged the pillow closer to his chest. “Why do you even need it? Don’t you have a bed worthy of a prince in Valhalla?” 

Will expected a witty counter-argument; but instead, Magnus winced back and his eyes troubled, a sad emptiness filling his grey pupils. He looked down. 

“It’s not the same. It doesn’t feel like home.” 

His voice was eerily quiet, and Will immediately felt bad about his sarcastic tone. Magnus had told him little about his mother, their simple lives and their trips into nature, but he knew enough to have identified it as a sensitive subject. Nostalgia sometimes manifested in the strangest forms. 

As Will stepped forward in an earnest gesture to apologize, the door to their room slammed open and May stepped in, looking a little troubled. But as soon as she saw them, her features shifted into a huge grin. 

Will winced. He felt like a charge of electricity had hit him, making his hair stand up on his arms – it was a feeling he knew. It was familiar. It was- 

“I found Sam!” the girl excitedly announced, then seemed to reconsider her announcement and frowned. “No, I mean, I haven’t _found_ her, but I know where she’ll be tonight? It’s already good, right?” she added, somewhat uncertain. She glanced at Magnus, who nodded back. 

“Yes, of course,” the son of Frey said. “Y-” 

“Who were you talking to?” 

Both teenagers jumped and looked at Will, surprised. Magnus mouthed a “what” at him, but the other boy didn’t look at him, entirely focused on the Valkyrie. His pupils were slightly dilated. 

“Outside. We saw you talking to someone. Who was it?” Will continued, ignoring the other blonde completely even if it was rude. His voice was tenser than he had expected it to be, but he decided to overlook it. A creeping feeling was growing inside his guts. 

“It was…” May started, confused, then paused and considered her answer. “An acquaintance.” 

“Nemesis.” 

The Valkyrie immediately flinched back. Her eyes widened and she instinctively reached for her daggers, but stopped herself before she could draw them. Her hands hovered for a moment above her belt, then her body suddenly seemed to go slack and she stumbled towards the closest bed. Her face was blank and tired. Guilty. 

“Yes,” she just answered, quietly. 

“So you knew who I was all along?” Will said, more an accusation than a question. He didn’t want to use such a sharp tone, but he felt like a thousand centipedes were crawling in his belly. It was the same feeling as when he was scared of Nico shadow-travelling. It was the same feeling as when he had gone home to find a police officer waiting for him, shaking her head in sympathy and telling him that his mother had been attacked and had been taken to the hospital. 

Will had never wanted to acknowledge it, but he knew that he had taken more after his father than just the good looks and talent for lame poetry. 

And he hated it. He hated _feeling_ that something bad was coming and not knowing _when_ , or _where_ , or _how to prevent it_. 

Talk about a half-assed prophecy gift. 

May winced. She shook her head. 

“No, not at first. But I guessed when your friend appeared at dinner.” 

She hesitated, then resolutely looked up at Will. Next to her, Magnus was glancing back and forth between them, silent and a little more than confused. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, Will. But there is much more at stakes than you might think.” 

“Much more at stakes to _what_?” 

He hadn’t meant to scream. He really hadn’t. But he was starting to feel a belated emotional setback of everything that had happened, including the fact that he was _dead_ and that his boyfriend had almost got trapped into a cage of darkness because of his stupid glowing ass, and that he generally speaking _had no idea what was going on_ , and couldn’t people just be honest with him _for once_? 

In the background, Nico made a whimpering noise at the sudden sputter and stirred on his bed. Will’s eyes immediately glazed in his direction, the angry flames that had lit up in his chest blown off like candles, just leaving an empty coldness behind. He felt tired. 

“Sorry,” he mumbled, and sat heavily on the bed behind him. After a few seconds, Magnus awkwardly side-walked to him, and the bed slumped down again as he sat down as well. He patted Will’s shoulder. 

On the other bed, May was looking at her hands, not knowing what to say. 

Behind her, Nico had stopped moving, and seemed to be peaceful snoring/purring again. Will sighed. 

“Alright,” he said. May looked up at him, silent. “Let’s start from the beginning. How are you related to Nemesis?” 

“She’s my…” The Valkyrie frowned, her voice trailing off, as if considering an odd fact. “Well, she’s technically my stepmother.” 

_Of course,_ Will thought, humourless. 

“She…,” the girl continued, quietly. “Well, she came to our home a little more than a year ago. She didn’t even say hello, she just told us that Ethan was-” Her voice broke, and she looked down to her feet. Will could see that her lips were shaking. 

“- dead,” she finished, and took a deep breath. “My father, he didn’t take it well at all, you know. Not in the yelling kind, but he-” She breathed again. “We were all so worried when Ethan hadn’t come home after camp all those months ago. Mom wanted to alert the police, but dad said that Ethan had left him a message to tell him that he was okay and was doing what he had been meant to do all his life. I didn’t understand back then.” She paused again. The silence of the room was only interrupted by a soft sleepy whistling coming from Nico. 

“Dad didn’t even scream, he just… he just looked at Nemesis and told her to go. And then he closed the door and Mom told me to go to my room, so I did, and Nemesis was waiting for me there, and she promised to leave me alone if I wanted to but asked me to listen to her first.” 

May absently looked out the window, her eyes distant. 

“She told me that Ethan had made a deal with her to have a chance to change the world. She asked me if I wanted to make one too. I said no.” 

The girl looked down again and carefully put a hand on her forearm. After a moment, she slowly started to roll her sleeve up. 

“She smiled and said that it was the answer she was expecting, then asked me if I wanted to know more about my brother. And when I said yes, I felt something burning on my arm, and when I looked, this was there.” 

She held out her arm towards the boys. Will leaned forward to take a better look, and gasped in surprise. 

At the same place as where the Romans had their godly symbol tattooed, the Valkyrie’s skin displayed a meticulously drawn set of scales. The word “guardian” was repeated in multiple languages around them, forming a few concentric circles of symbols like walls around a castle and making the tattoo look like a shield. Will was pretty sure he had never seen some of the alphabets traced there. And was that a hieroglyph? 

“It’s supposed to protect me from ‘influential magic’ among other things, whatever that means. And then after that, Nemesis told me about Greeks and Romans, and-” She glanced at Magnus. “And other gods. She said I was destined to take a path both similar and opposite to Ethan.” 

She shook her head. 

“I don’t know what she meant by that, but so far she has helped me when I needed her, so I guess it can’t be too bad?” 

Her tone felt like she was trying to convince herself more than anything else. Will kind of felt bad for her. Being an important pawn in the gods’ games usually didn’t rhyme with happy ending. He looked down at his hands, feeling his throat tightening a bit. He had the feeling May was telling the truth, but the uncomfortable metaphorical insects in his stomach hadn’t left him. 

“But you are a Valkyrie.” 

Will turned his head. Next to him, Magnus was squinting and scratching his head thoughtfully. The movements of his neurons furiously zipping about in his brain and trying to connect the dots were almost visible. 

“I mean, if you are connected to the Greeks already, Odin must have known it, right? Wouldn’t it be diplomatically awkward or something to nominate you as a Valkyrie? Unless…” 

His voice trailed off, and the silence felt heavy under the words he hadn’t said but that they still all thought and knew to be true. 

The All-Father knew, and was preparing for something big. 

Will’s heart sank to the bottom of his stomach, and then looped back up to his throat. He had the unshakable feeling he was playing right into the gods’ palms once more, but what could he do? Everything he did could have been calculated, anything bold he did could have been anticipated. Where did his free will even start and end? 

His head started spinning and he couldn’t breathe. 

“So what do we do?” he whispered, a muffled terror resonating in it. He was dead. He was dead, and he was still on the gameboard, he was still being pushed around by invisible and almighty forces he couldn’t fully apprehend. 

He felt so cold. 

“We’re going to find Sam and Odin.” 

Will didn’t need to look up to know that Nico had woken up and silently walked to them. Had he been listening all along? It wouldn’t surprise him. 

“It could be a trap,” Magnus said, and May seemed to agree. Nico stepped forward in the small space between the two beds. 

“It could. It probably is. But we won’t find out by hiding.” 

He then turned to May, and his eyes were cold and resolute. 

“So, where is Sam going to be tonight?” 


	6. Swan song

Nico had only seen Odin once, during the Afterlife Crisis Emergency Meeting that Osiris had called in. It had been a very long meeting, with a lot of shoutings, a lot of punches, several fights, a few declarations of wars and subsequent truces, many broken furniture, and no real results. 

The only reason Nico’s sanity had survived was because Anubis had seemed as out of place as him and they had spent half of the godly brawl playing games on their phones. Some minor death deities and a couple of Hel’s kids had also joined them in their virtual pillow fort when things had started getting very ugly at the grown-ups table. They could almost have looked like a bunch of disgruntled teenagers bonding if some of them weren’t, in fact, thousands of years old and immortal. 

Now, he was facing the All-Father in what looked like a motel room. A cheap motel room with cheap wallpaper and oil stains on the furniture. In a word, a place one would not expect to meet a powerful god at. 

“Nico di Angelo,” Odin called with enthusiasm after he had properly slapped May and Magnus on the back and swatted them to the floor like flies, almost knocking out a surprised Sam who jumped out of Magnus’ way like a startled keel threatened by a bowling ball. The god then walked over where Nico was shaking on his feet in dreadful anticipation, and proceeded to pull him in a spine-crushing bear hug. The demigod swore something in his body cracked. “How is your father?” 

“Fine,” Nico squeaked breathlessly. As soon as the god released him, Nico stumbled back against Will’s way softer and safer chest. The son of Apollo wrapped his arms protectively around him. Nico could feel his body temperature raising slightly, the sign of him being on guard and ready to fight. 

“It’s okay, Will,” he whispered, softly tapping on his arms in a reassuring way. The son of Apollo relaxed a little, but didn’t entirely release him. 

Odin scowled at the blond boy, and crossed his arms above his chest. He closed the distance between them in one powerful stride, and leaned down toward him, threatening shadows on his face. Will didn’t move. 

Odin grinned. 

“The boy is brave!” he barked out laughing, and slapped Will’s back. The demigod almost fell forward, but managed to regain his balance, much to Nico’s relief. He did not enjoy being brutally crushed under anyone. “He is worthy of you, Child of Death!” 

Nico froze and looked up at the god curiously. 

“This is the third time someone calls me that today. What does it mean?” 

Odin winced. 

“Oh, hum,” he said, troubled. “You are Hades’ only living demigod child, so. I mean, your sister Hazel is also alive, but she died before, so it’s a bit weird. Hm. Anyway.” He made a vague gesture with his hand, like a regal salute but more awkward. 

Nico would never have guessed that the All-Father was such a terrible liar. He refrained from raising a doubtful eyebrow at him and decided to keep his mouth shut. Whatever that nickname meant, it could wait. They had more urgent business to deal with. 

And they had to be careful. 

Nico had heard May’s story back at the hostel. He hadn’t meant to, being blissfully sleeping out the deep dreamless slumber he desperately needed. But then Will’s distressed scream had promptly brought him back to the real world, and he had been unable to doze off again after. He had just pretended to, so he wouldn’t disturb the conversation. 

He didn’t know what the All-Father was up to, but he was decided to come out from this encounter with one boyfriend’s soul, no more dead people, and preferably a more or less functional world - at least one that hadn’t turned into a giant battlefield for bored and bloodthirsty deities who had decided to stop ignoring each other the best they could. 

“All-Father, you know what we came here for,” Nico said. Odin nodded thoughtfully. Behind him, Sam was helping her two friends up, shaking her head like an exceeded mother who didn’t know what to do with her troublemaking child anymore. Magnus said something that led her to punch him in the chest and make him stagger away again. Then she turned away and brushed her fingers in May’s loosened hair to put them back in order, under the younger Valkyrie’s lovestruck gaze. 

The All-Father turned around and gestured for them to approach. 

“This is a delicate matter, children,” he said. “After our last meeting…” 

Nico made a face. Odin threw him an amused look. 

“I agree with you, what happened was not worthy of us. I am preparing a few diagrams to show what went wrong and ways of improvement.” He paused, frowned, muttered something about colour codes, then scratched his beard in silence. The teenagers glanced at each other. 

“Anyway,” Odin resumed as if nothing happened. “The point is, the safety walls keeping us from each other are crumbling down. It was only a matter of time before one of my Valkyries claimed a soul belonging to another afterlife. This is why I recruited you, Ward of Nemesis.” 

May flinched when the god turned in her direction, and looked at her feet. Her face was closed and a slight frown was settling on her brows. Nico guessed with bitterness that she was starting to feel how he had for years now – like a small pawn on a giant chessboard, scared and crushed under the vastness of the game and overwhelmed by the stakes that were too big to comprehend. 

Terrified, but also maybe eager to fight back. 

“I didn’t think it would happen so quickly though,” Odin sighed. “We weren’t completely ready.” 

“Ready for what?” Nico asked. 

The All-Father’s eyes turned vague. He looked at Will sadly, as if he knew that something unpleasant was going to happen to him but was resigned. 

“Take care of the problem.” 

Nico’s body immediately went on full alert, his heart reaching a high adrenaline-boosted pace. But as his own body temperature rose slightly, the temperature of the room suddenly seemed to drop by 10 degrees. The Valkyries and Magnus froze in place, staring at them with wide eyes. Behind his back, Nico felt Will turn very still as well. 

Suspiciously still. 

“What-” 

Nico stumbled away from his boyfriend and looked at him. He wasn’t frozen in shock. And neither were his friends. 

They were literally frozen. 

“Nico,” Odin called. The demigod turned around, putting himself like a shield between him and his boyfriend. 

The All-Father slowly shook his head. 

“I can see you have brought gifts to bargain for your lover’s soul,” he said, gesturing at Nico’s bag. “But I cannot accept them. By stepping into Valhalla, he has already disturbed the balance. The only way to re-establish it is to remove the disturbance.” 

“This is bullshit,” Nico spat before his reason and survival instinct could stop him. Some distant part of his brain apologized to Hazel for his language, but he actually didn’t feel very sorry. Another part of his brain started emitting a long and low shrieking noise at the realization that he had just casually insulted a powerful god. Nico told both parts to shut up. 

“Will didn’t _ask_ to be brought to Valhalla. If you really didn’t want it to happen, why didn’t you step in and stop May?” 

Odin flinched. Dark shadows settled on his face, and his features shifted into a less humane appearance. That was bad. Very bad. 

“Are you accusing me of orchestrating this, son of Hades?” he asked, his voice a low threatening rumble. 

_Uh oh._

Nico’s instincts were screaming at him to run, or to fall on his knees and beg for mercy. Instead, he clenched his fists and dug his nails into his palms to keep himself from even stepping back. _Balance, balance, balance._ It always came down to this, and Nico wanted to scream in frustration and kick the damn scales himself, be damned the survival of the worlds. 

_If it comes down to it, I just want to know that you’ll make the right decision._

Hades’ words resonated in his skull, making Nico freeze in his rage-driven momentum. In another occasion, they might have angered him even more – but right now, they brought his attention back to the simplest and most important thing. 

Which was that there were people out there, who definitely didn’t deserve to suffer from his hot-headed bad decision-making. 

Nico took a deep breath, and urged the mindless resentment and anger that had been building inside of him for years to step back and not make him do something reckless he was obviously going to regret. 

“You said yourself that the walls are falling down,” he eventually replied, trying to keep his voice under control (which meant, keeping it from turning to either an angry shriek or a terrified shriek.) “Will may be the first, but he won’t be the last soul your warriors wrongfully claim. Are you going to destroy all of them to keep your stupid illusion of balance?” 

_Oops._

That last tiny bit had slipped through the attentive supervision of his words, and Nico almost clapped his hand over his mouth. 

But it was done and too late to undo. 

In front of him, the All-Father seemed to be growing in size, a hundred storm clouds flashing lightning bolts in his dark blue eyes. Static emanated from him, making Nico’s hair stand up on his arms and neck. The walls of the room started shaking. 

He had kicked the scales. Even if he tried to backpedal, Odin was obviously too far-gone to reach. A burning feeling lit in Nico’s chest, and he grinded his teeth. 

_Screw that._

“The status quo is over, All-Father!” the demigod screamed, summoning all his bravery to look into those terrifying eyes that had stricken fear in so many enemies. His voice rose to cover the deafening noise of a motel potentially being torn from the ground and preparing for an exceptional trip into the sky. “Destroying souls might work at first, but you know very well it’s not the solution!” 

Odin roared, making cracks spread down the walls. His head was touching the ceiling, and his eyes had turned completely black (or maybe Nico just couldn’t see them clearly, from down there). 

He raised a fist, clearly intending to slam it down on the demigod. Nico would never survive that. 

_Well, that’s it then,_ Nico thought. He stretched his left arm back, blindly looking for Will’s hand, eyes resolutely decided to look at his doom right in the face. 

When he touched the blonde’s skin, something suddenly warmed up on his finger. A scent evoking a picnic in a flower field reached his nose. 

The next thing Nico knew, he was falling face-first towards the back of a giant cat. 

 

  
* 

 

Something very hairy was poking at Nico’s cheeks. 

Then he felt something grab the back of his shirt and lift him in the air. Except that the thing was obviously not tall enough to carry him, because his forearms and legs dragged on the floor when it moved. 

Nico mentally groaned. He felt like that weird state when your brain woke up but your body didn’t. He took a few breaths, trying to wiggle his fingers and toes, eyes angrily shut. He didn’t want to imagine what kind of dreadful hallucinations he would see if he dared to open his eyes in that state. 

When he finally felt like his body had emerged as well, he cracked an eye open. Then forced the other open as well, because his brain didn’t manage to compute what it was seeing and needed a second take. 

There was a heap of gems. A big heap of gems. Like one so big that he couldn’t see the top because he wasn’t an owl and couldn’t turn his head that much. That didn’t make sense. Who just left heaps of gems in their houses? 

The thing dropped him and Nico landed with an “oof” on a thick carpet. As soon as he did, people started laughing above him. The boy’s cheeks reddened and he shot on his feet, then fell back on his butt, his head spinning madly. Why couldn’t he just _stand_? Why was it a thing the universe seemed to be against him doing today? 

“Don’t strain yourself too much, son of Hades,” a melodious voice said. It sounded kind of familiar. “I would like to still count you among the living for now.” 

Nico grunted, then stopped when a set of very familiar tanned arms helped him up. 

“I agree,” Will smiled, and the smaller boy’s heart raced a bit faster, his whole face feeling hotter as well. Some part in him screamed in outrage at his physical reaction, but it was quickly silenced as a warm melody hummed through his chest. What even. Why was he reacting like that. “You are going to stay in bed for a few days when we get home.” 

“Get home?” he repeated stupidly, a goofy smile spreading on his face. He had weird visions of movie nights cuddling together under the same blankets and walks along the beach in the sunset. 

The first voice chuckled again, making Nico jump and shake his head. _What the hell just happened._

“Sorry,” the stunningly beautiful lady sitting on the throne in front of him laughed. “Sappiness might be a side-effect of using my things. It could last a few days.” 

She winked at Will. 

“Or forever, who knows.” 

The son of Apollo giggled back. Nico blinked very hard, slapped his cheeks, then looked again. 

“Lady Freya,” he eventually said. “What? Why-” 

Then his brain kicked in again, and it all fell into place. He glared at the tiger-sized cat who had dragged him in front of the throne. The cat meowed and licked its paw in what Nico could only describe as contempt. He looked back at Freya. 

“You were the cat lady,” he accused. It wasn’t supposed to sound like an accusation. It still did. 

The goddess grinned at him, and warmth washed over the demigod’s soul. Then her smile turned sad, and Nico felt down too. 

“I disagree with what Odin is doing,” she said quietly. “I hoped you would manage to knock some sense in him, but well…” 

She paused. 

“He is a wise man though, and will surely rally to our reason soon.” 

She didn’t seem completely convinced by her own words, but didn’t let her uncertainty linger too long on her face. She went back to her default smiling face, and picked up a kitten playing on the arm of her throne before it fell down. The small cat stretched on her lap, then sat back and peeked curiously at Nico. 

The demigod wasn’t sure what face he was making, but it must have been grim. The memories of his encounter with the All-Father were coming back to him, and he shuddered. He had faced monsters, Titans, giants and had even been to Tartarus; and yet, that must have been one of the scariest experiences in his life. He wondered how he had managed to stand up against the god. 

Will quietly slipped his hand into his and squeezed softly. _You are braver than you think,_ his eyes seemed to say, as if he could read what Nico was thinking. The dark-haired boy smiled at him. 

“What about our friends though?” he asked. At the latest news, Sam, May and Magnus were still frozen next to a very big and very angry god, which was usually not good. 

“Don’t worry,” Freya reassured him. “Odin won’t hurt them.” 

Nico nodded, trusting her words. He usually had very mild trust in gods in general, but Freya sounded genuine. Which was also usually not trustable coming from deities, but Nico was tired of always been on guard. The room was nice and warm, and the only other current occupants besides them were a bunch of cats of various sizes running around and wreaking havoc among the hammocks hanged throughout the giant hall. 

It kind of felt like Elysium after a wild pyjama-party in the gardens. 

“What about us, then?” 

The goddess’ lips curled up into a wide smile, but Nico couldn’t help but notice an edge in it. He had been around enough fake smiles to notice those details. 

“I thought you’d never ask,” she said. “While you were out, your fathers have met with Odin.” 

The demigods stared at each other. 

_What?_

“They have struck a deal for your soul, Will Solace. You are to go to Erebos as you were supposed to. I hope that you-” 

“Hold on, hold on,” Will cut in, then realised he had just interrupted a goddess and recoiled. Freya didn’t seem to take offense though, and gestured at him to continue. 

“ _Apollo_ and _Hades_ actually lifted a finger for my poor little soul?” 

Freya frowned. 

“They did more than just lift a finger,” she replied, her voice low. Will stepped back. 

“I didn’t mean to-” 

“I know,” the goddess sighed. “You are more important than you think you are, son of Apollo. And besides…” 

Her voice trailed off, and her eyes turned distant, like she was revisiting ancient memories. 

“Believe it or not, but us gods actually do care about our children,” she finished, barely more than a whisper. 

Her words made the demigods awkwardly look at their feet, almost ashamed. They both knew that the other had just started revisiting all the times he had blamed his father for whatever reason there was to blame him. The missed opportunity of a happy childhood, the destruction of his home - the absence when he needed him the most. 

It was hard to believe that they really cared when they let their family on the verge of death, hiding behind the too much used argument of fate. 

But then there were those little things – those brief sightings from the other side of the street that were so quick they thought they dreamed, the birthday parcels that showed up at their doors… 

_That surgeon that somehow looked familiar even though Will hadn’t really paid attention, as he had rushed past him to see his mother before the man could even finish telling him that she was out of danger._

Will froze, his eyes widening in realization, but before he could say anything, Freya looked up with a wide smile, as if nothing had happened. 

“I am keeping your soul together, Will, but as you are no longer an einherji, you are going to need a special ride to go to Erebos,” she said, and pointed at the door. 

The demigods followed her gesture and had to look twice and pinch each other’s arms to believe what they were seeing. 

Out there, against the eternal sun of Folksvanger, a beautiful chariot pulled by pure-white horses was waiting for them. Standing at the front, a handsome young man was awkwardly waving at them, sunglasses pushed up his ruffled blond hair and a too tight t-shirt and pair of jeans underlying his perfectly muscled body. 

Will’s jaw dropped. 

“Dad?” 

The god smiled, and Will was now convinced everything was probably a dream. 

“Mmh,” he heard Nico hum. “I guess I’ll just go first and wait for you at the Styx then.” 

Will looked for something to say, but the smaller boy tiptoed and pressed a soft kiss on his lips, then smirked and stepped back into the shadow of a pillar. He waved and disappeared. 

Somehow, Will’s heart didn’t make a distressed loop in his chest this time. It made him smile, and he just stared at the empty shadow for a moment, his lips buzzing warmly. 

“I wish you a good journey, Will Solace,” Freya interrupted his thoughts, amused. 

The demigod blushed and thanked her. The goddess just grinned back and flashed a thumbs up at him, to the boy’s greatest confusion. Will then bowed his head and started running towards the door, where his father was waiting for him. 

 

  
* 

 

“You are taking me to Erebos?” Will asked rhetorically to fill the awkward silence that was reigning on the chariot. 

Apollo nodded, but didn’t look at his son. Since Will had stepped on the carriage, his father had stopped smiling and had just been looking ahead. Sometimes, the demigod caught him eyeing him with a troubled look. 

“What’s wrong?” he eventually asked. He felt his patience threading thin. 

When he had seen Apollo at Freya’s door, Will’s heart had jumped in surprise, then suspicion, then curiosity and wistfully anticipation. He had hoped for an honest father-to-son conversation, maybe share a few jokes and get some answers. It’s not like they had never talked, but it was usually just a few words passing by – the longest conversation they ever had was at Michael’s official funerals where they had buried an empty coffin, followed closely by that one time Will had cornered him in the babies supplies of a supermarket (Will didn’t want to know) to ask him about why the flying crap there had been two suns in the morning. 

Instead, the god was eerily silent and gloomy. 

“A lot of things happened,” Apollo replied simply. Will waited for more details, but his father seemed uninclined to share more. 

“Why did you even pick me up if you were just planning to sulk the whole ride?” the boy grumbled darkly. He realized he probably gave out the vibe of a five-year-old, but he didn’t care. Maybe he was being unfair, but disappointment usually made one resentful. 

Apollo winced. He looked at his son, and Will almost forgot why he was angry. 

His father’s usually playful and smug eyes were filled with sadness, and maybe even… fear? 

“What’s going on, dad?” the demigod whispered, genuine concern in his voice. He had never seen the extravagant and loud Apollo looking so pained. 

The god opened his mouth, then seemed to reconsider and shook his head. 

“Nothing of your concern anymore, my son.” 

Before Will could say anything, the chariot suddenly landed with a thud. The boy was almost projected against the railings. As he regained his balance, he looked around in confusion. 

Will didn’t recall having gone through a hole or anything, but they were now obviously underground. A giant wall of stone was climbing not far from him, its top lost in the darkness above. A dozen of meters away, he could see a river flowing silently. A man in a barque seemed to be staring at him, looking bored. In the distance beyond the River, he could see a human-shaped dot waving his arms at him. 

“Be happy, Will,” Apollo said softly, and gave him a little push on the chest. Will stepped back out of the chariot. 

“Wait, dad-” 

But the god had already disappeared, not a trace of his passage anywhere, not even dust settling on the ground. 

It was as if he had never been there. 

“WILL!” Nico screamed in the distance, his hands around his mouth to amplify the sound. His words echoed against the giant walls surrounding him. “HURRY OR I’LL EAT ALL THE PIE.” 

Will gasped, all considerations about his father suddenly fading behind a thought that tasted like sweet apples. He was not aware of the existence of a pie, but now that he knew, he couldn’t let his boyfriend devour it without him. It was a question of honour. 

“DON’T YOU DARE,” he yelled back, and ran towards Charon. The ferryman raised a bored eyebrow at him, and readied his boat to leave. 

“Your passage has already been paid for,” Charon mumbled monotonously as Will jumped on board. The boat slowly stirred and started its journey towards the other side of the River. 

As Nico’s face became clearer, the tormented thoughts Will was having about his father seemed less bleak. He was still worried and wanted to know what was going on, but he figured that for now, he deserved some rest. 

Besides, he thought with a playful smirk, he had promised Nico to nurse him for a couple of days. 

And then, he’d have all eternity to figure everything else out, right? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE END (or is it)
> 
> Thank you all for reading and the kudos and comments! (I love you so much ;w;)
> 
> You can also find me on [tumblr](http://kitshunette.tumblr.com/) if you want o/
> 
> And last but not least... I wish you all a happy holidays! <3


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